Saturday, August 05, 2006

6 Months & Still No Justice For Sal

On July 24th, we attended a Mass and received Communion in honor and memory of our beloved son Salvatore as it was the six month anniversary of his unjustified shooting and killing at the hands of a SWAT officer in the act of serving a document search warrant.

We have not updated this site in the last three months in anticipation of a response from Chief Rohrer. We were hopeful that sheer decency would mandate that Chief Rohrer honor Supervisor Connolly’s request to respond to us “with an estimation of the time for the release of a report on the death of [our] son.” To date Chief Rohrer has failed to comply with this request.

This failure by Chief Rohrer is totally consistent with FCPD’s apparent “closed door” policy of not sharing any information with the public and makes us wonder if Chief Rohrer works for the Board of Supervisors or if the Board and Supervisor Connolly work for Chief Rohrer. If I were Mr. Connolly, I would want and expect compliance with my directive and I would want it now. Let us see who is in charge.

However, we understand that the FCPD has already concluded their Internal Affairs investigation but we have not received any information on their findings. We can only speculate that the delay in any response from the FCPD is connected to their trepidation that the ongoing investigation by the FBI may connect the dots differently than their “in house” investigation of themselves. We are grateful for the decision by the FBI to conduct a preliminary independent investigation of their own but appalled at the actions of the FCPD in still not releasing the findings of their own investigation. We could only hope that the FBI identifies the shortcomings of police policies and procedures that led to the obvious use of excessive force against our son. Any competent undercover detective who engaged our son would have known him to be both a non-threatening and non-violent person. Sal had no history of violence, did not own a weapon, and was unarmed and cooperative at the time of the killing.

Again our deepest appreciation to all those who continue to monitor this site looking for updates that we hoped we could provide in a timelier fashion. We recognize how very blessed our son was to have so many friends who valued him and miss him as we do. We appreciate the sentiments you have shared with us; they help us to find strength as we bear this cross. We ask you to continue to keep our family in your thoughts and pray that our loving Salvatore’s killing by a SWAT officer will not be forgotten but remembered for the incredulous act that it was and is.

May God send His blessings, graces and mercies to each of you.

With our most sincere affection and appreciation,

Sal and Anita
Proud Parents of Dr. Salvatore J. Culosi
salandanita@justiceforsal.com