David Coborubio: Killed in Nighttime FBI Raid, Was Not The Target
Family and friends gather around the spot where David Coborubio died after being shot by an FBI agent at his mother’s home in South Los Angeles. (Source)
September 6, 2021 ~ By Shari Rose
Coborubio had not committed a crime when an FBI agent shot him to death at his mother’s house in South LA
One of the SWAT teams involved with the nighttime raid where Coborubio was shot on August 25, 2016. (Source)
On August 25, 2016, a SWAT team with the FBI converged on David Coborubio’s mother’s home. They were there to arrest Coborubio’s friend, a man named Paul White. White had failed to appear at his parole meetings, so the FBI called in a SWAT team to take him back to jail.
According to an attorney for Coborubio’s family, David Coborubio and White were playing video games in the home’s garage that evening. Coborubio’s mother and sisters were in the home as well. When FBI agents in large armored vehicles suddenly swarmed the driveway, Coborubio ran to the backdoor of the home, and was shot in the chest by an FBI agent. He was unarmed and died at the scene. Coborubio was 31 years old. White was arrested and sentenced to 180 days in jail.
The FBI did not release a press statement about the killing until the following afternoon, which meant members of the media could not physically get to the scene until it was cleaned up.
An armored truck sites parked outside Coborubio’s mother’s house the night he was killed. One of his sisters who was in the home, Margaret, said “it looked like they were here to take Osama Bin Laden to jail.” (Source)
Unlike local police, the FBI is not legally required to release an investigative report when they kill people. Coborubio was not the intended target of the raid, but a bystander. Still, at the time of this publishing, the FBI has failed to release any public justification for the killing.
One of David’s sisters, Anna Reyes, said she asked an FBI agent to see the warrant that named a different man than her brother. “One of the FBI agents was like ‘You don’t need one, that’s irrelevant,’” she said. “‘You don’t have to see one, we’ll show you one later.’”
Mona Martinez, his mother, spoke to NBC after the shooting and said she received very little information about her son’s death. “I want to know why they killed my son,” she said. “I want to know what the hell they were doing here.”
Coborubio’s family demands answers but the FBI stays silent
David Coborubio’s family filed a lawsuit against Los Angeles County on September 1, 2016. Beyond that, I could not find any further information about the outcome of that suit.
David Coborubio in an undated family photo. (Source)
In the last five years, the FBI has failed to produce any further information about the death of David Coborubio. There is no accountability, there is no justice. We don’t even know the identities of any of the agents involved in his killing.
The stories about his death from local and national news ended in 2016. There are no follow-ups, no pushing for the FBI to release justification for his killing from media outlets.
It is outrageous and obscene that a militarized police force can enter a home, kill a person who was not the target and who did not commit a crime, and there is zero accountability. Another family devastated by police violence with no chance of justice for their loved one. Despicable.
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This story about David Coborubio is part of a larger project that looks at recent police shootings of Latinos in Los Angeles.
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