Steven Rodriguez: Cops Shoot Pipe-Wielding Man Outside Carl's Jr. in Monterey Park: It's Captured on Video

http://www.theblaze.com/storie... This video can better be seen here.

This is a blatant abuse of authority and in no circumstance did it require 10 shots!!. After the first shot, which should of been non-lethal, the officer could of serveyed the threat and would of most lickely notice that any hostility would cease. These officers, like most got caught up in their own emotions and in doing so MURDERED this man, no if's and's or but's about it. He was clearly on his way to death with 5 shots in his abdomen and chest but another officer had to make sure by mutilating his body with 5 more rounds.

I don't see any wrong doing here.... the man swings at a cop in turn , the cop does  what is instinctively logical self defense..

morale of the story.......NEVER SWING AT A COP.....

Totally justified. One less loser on the streets!

It gets interesting more and more over the time! Cops should gotten over it sooner! 

The police used every method they had to keep this guy alive, just yelling at him to drop it, then tazing him and instead of stopping, he turned on the cops, so they shot him. It's perfectly justified. If someone tries to seriously hurt you or your friends/family, you kill them, simple as that. Survival of the fittest. That doesn't mean that it's acceptable to go around killing people, it just means that if someone is trying to harm you, you have every right to stop them from ever being a threat to you or anyone else again. If someone were to come at you with a metal pipe and they stood like that, it would be perfectly acceptable to drop the person on the spot, whether it's knocking them out cold or killing them. People who make stupid choices like Steven Rodriguez did are the ones that need to die off. I don't want any kids of his running around doing the same things he did. Natural selection has been beat to death by medicine already, we can't let it completely die off.

The officer reacted the way he should of. The taser obviously didn't work so he opened fire when his fellow officer was threatened. the man crossed a line and the officer did what he had to do to stop the threat. once an officer pulls his gun his intent isn't to wound but to kill. If you think about it it makes sense. First they told him to stop and put his hands up that didn't work so they used non lethal force with a taser and he showed intent to hurt an officer so they opened fire. That sounds reasonable to me. 

I'm a member of this community Monterey park / East Los angeles. Just being part of the immediate community I have had encounters with one of the officers who shot his weapon (Romo), and he's never struck me as having a poor attitude (aggressive) or otherwise. I think that it was a bad choice overall and should be considered an excessive use of force by the police officer who fired the second round of five bullets.

This dude had to be on drugs seriously still standing up after getting lid up with some hollow point rounds man he was on some PCP or something!!

Carls Jr, is a dangerous place to Eat......they KILL you if you miss behave!!!

To ALL ...My Raza, ..lets NOT EAT AT Carls JR,

 untill those COPS are prcecute and covicted To LIFE IN PRISON !!!!!!!!!..

Carls Jr, Food Kills!!!!  people Die at Carls JR.!!!!

is that policy??? 10 shots REALLY...OVERKILL!!!!!

COPS ARE AGRESSIVE LET RETURN THE FAVOR!!!! IF THE GUY WAS WHITE THOSE COPS WOULD BE IN JAIL!! BUT SINCE HES HISPANIC THEY DONT CARE...ABOUT US SO WE DONT CARE ABOUT THEM!!!

Justified...if you can take a taser to the face like nothing, you could probably muster up the strength to swing that pick axe looking bar hard enough to kill a cop. He wouldn't of gotten shot if he hadn't been breaking windows at 9:30 in morning. Who does that? PCP does that.

Justified. You attempt to use deadly force on a police officer the police officer uses deadly force on you. The suspect had more than enough chances to leave that parking lot in handcuffs with a misdemeanor charge of destruction of property and a possible psych evaluation. He made his choice and the officers training, muscle memory, and combat stress made theirs. So dont monday morning quarterback those officers. They had to make a decision in the blink of an eye rather than one after watching the video 10 times. If one notices the second officer fired his shots within a second of the first. Average reaction time of a human is 3.5 seconds.

Justified. The first 5 shots were to stop him swinging as he cocked positioned to swing at te tasing cop. If you look at the second set of 5 shots it comes from the tasing cop who was backing away in fear and struggling to switch weapons. He fires as soon as his weapon is out, so he's following through on his earlier intent/decision to shoot while under attack. Not optimal as their superior said but real life rarely is.

You people, most of you, are idiots!

"Carl's Jr is just as responsible as the cops"? For what? They should be responsible for protecting their customers, meaning, the other law abiding customers. If they hadn't called the cops on someone smashing their windows and walking around with a weapon in their store, Carl's Jr would have been responsible for any other customers injuries if they did nothing.

I'm sorry that this guy's family has lost someone, but what about the police officers lives and family. It was a split second decision made AFTER he was tasered in the face, and refused to stop or drop his weapon. If he had stuck that officer in the head with that weapon he most likely would have died or had severe brain damage. What about his family? What about his kids?

This kid had no respect for authority or other people. I wouldn't want to live in a world where people like that can't be dealt with in this way.

After exhausting their non-lethal resource to no effect, and he lunges at them in that way, close range with a weapon, there was really no other choice. If you shoot one bullet you might as well shoot 5, or 10, the intent once you shoot one bullet is to immobilize the suspect because of the immediate threat to other life. One bullet fired has the purpose of deadly force to stop him, so it's irrelevant to argue that he should have only shot him once, or in the leg or what have you.

He didn't respond to the taser to the face. Maybe that's because it didn't connect, we don't know that, but his response seemed unfazed, which could have meant that he was high on PCP. So one bullet would not have stopped him. If i was the cop about to be swung on, would hope that my partner was quick enough to react and save My life, not some low life thug that has no respect for anyone but himself.

If i was in that Carl's Jr with my family, little kids and i felt threatened, i would have walked out and shook that cops hand for protecting everyone else there for some lunatic wielding a weapon.

Disgusting!

why is it that no matter what happens, 'cops are always wrong'?so now Steven Rodriguez is the victim? I think it is clear he had no respect for other people, other people's property and for the authorities and now, look what that got him.What would you do if somebody came to your place and destroyed your property?or if somebody would beat you up with a pipe and simply walked away?Police officer are there to protect us, so why do we want to crucify them every time they do?or, do you think we would be better off whithout the police?I don't.

He did NOT swing at them! As the video clearly shows.  He did lunge at them but there was no attempt on anyones life.  Even if he did, they should have been trained to deal with confrontation of such sort instead of just shooting someone 10 times.  I shot to the kneed cap or another cop taking him out from behind.  But 10 shots...  Sorry, thats a little messed up..

I THINK THAT THE MONTEREY POLICE COULD OF DISABLED HIM INSTEAD OF SHOOTING HIM 10 TIMES ITS AWFUL THAT THESE COPS MAKE FAST AND WRONG DECISIONS THEY NEED MORE TRAINING THEY COULD OF SHOT HIM IN THE LEG OR SOMETHING BUT SHOOTING HIM 10 TIMES IS TRAJIC NO JUSTIFICATION. 

I THINK THAT THE MONTEREY POLICE COULD OF DISABLED HIM INSTEAD OF SHOOTING HIM 10 TIMES ITS AWFUL THAT THESE COPS MAKE FAST AND WRONG DECISIONS THEY NEED MORE TRAINING THEY COULD OF SHOT HI IN THE LEG OR SOMETHING BUT SHOOTING HIM 10 TIMES IS TRAJIC NO JUSTIFICATION. 

Justified were this a-hole was looking for trouble what about the restaurant owner who's gonna pay for all the windows because some idiot had a problem as and insuarance agent he has to options file a claim his premium will go thru the roof or pay it from his pocket if this moron was so pissed at the world he should have broken his own mother house window and before you start feeling sympathy forThis poor moron ask yourself do you go randomly

He asked for it!He was about to hit the cop with the pipe...his partner saw it and shot  the heck out him as he so deserved! I saw the video and the last 5 shots were needed as well ...because he was still a threat. Go watch the video again and even the guys taking the video was recorded saying "he's still fighting dude" Unquote.

The guy was dangerous and a threat and the police had to take him down and i am glad because innocent lives were have been lost. It wasn't overkill but whats the difference anyway,if u THINK hes already dead then why you bitching about it? BUT that wasnt the case anyway ...the guy was still standing after the first 5 and still a danger.

Good on the cops.The idiot deserved what he got.

THERE WAS NO REASON FOR 10 SHOTS ESPECIALLY AFTER THE 5 AND HE WAS TURNING TO FALL AND 5 MORE TO HIS BACK .. THATS RIDICULOUS!! GOD BLESS HIS FAMILY

Pathetic, it seems the officer may have had more problems going on with himself if he is going to shoot the victim over 10 times, and in a rapid succession. How angry at your own hopeless life are you to hold a viscous German Shepard back as you couldn't miss the chance to unload your whole clip into a victim who did not hurt anyone but break some windows. Plus the victim didn't even threaten that officer, he was facing the other one and that officer in harms way didn't even draw his gun! It is obvious this is a show of how sad of law enforcement agency is. I live in Monterey Park and I am scared to even fight a ticket knowing they can shoot me and get away with just their word. The cop is in a worse situation because he shot a woman across the street from the place! How bad of a shot are you to miss a guy who is less than 5 feet away from you? He technically has done worse by hurting another living being! When does the line come to an end, when are we going to stop being abused and walk over by pathetic officers. If you cannot at least try to wrestle down a suspect when you have three other officers there, then why did you become a cop anyway? To just write easy tickets and kill if possible??? I truly am scared of whats to come in this sorry circus of an America.

Woah It's So Easy To Judge The Suspect.. He Made A Mistake By Breaking The Windows, And Threaten The Officer Not SWING!! But He Did Not Injure Any One!! Im Thankfull For All Cops Do, But I Think 10 Shots Wernt Nessasary.. The Suspect Is A Human Being! I Feel For The Family And Mother For Their Loss.. I Am A Mother Of Two Boys, And I Cant Imajine The Pain The Mother Is Feeling Of Loosing Her Son.. Not Being Able To See Him Ever Ever Again.. Everyone Makes DStupid Mistakes Some More Than Other, Murder Isnt The Solution.. I Think They Could Have Done It Different, But The Officer Reacted The Way He Did.. Everyone Ealse Reacts Different..

yeah.. maybe the first officer's shots. But the second officers were Not. It'll be deemed completely justified for both cops though.

You people saying that this was an unjustified need to stop because you're taking credibility away from ACTUAL cases of unwarranted police use of force.

Dude comes out in an agitated state holding a deadly weapon. After being ordered to drop it and an attempt at non-lethal force, he advances on one of the cops. That's going to get your ass shot 100 out of 100 times. Period. Cops don't shoot to wound for good reason. Once they start shooting, they're not going to stop shooting until your ass is motionless and limp--that's just the way it is. If you don't know not to come at a cop with a weapon then you're either terminally stupid or have a terminal mental illness. Either way, you've got a fatal condition.

Cops aren't mental health professionals and if dude was speedballing or on dust, no amount of non-lethal force was going to stop him. He actually had more of a chance being in Monterey Park.  If he was in the liberal hippie haven of Portland, OR, the cops would have dropped him the second he jay-walked across the street to get there.

There's too many instances of unjustified police violence out there, but this wasn't one of them.

See what the media is trying to cover up about Carl's Jr's involvement in this!! Watch "Carl's Jr shooting commercial"