But Montanez says it was a Hays County SWAT truck that rammed his car head-on. As they collided, another police vehicle pinned him from behind, he says.
He heard a shot.
“I saw my windshield crack, and I ducked down as low as possible,” Montanez said. “I really thought I was going to die.”
Seconds later, he says, three deputies were pointing assault rifles at him. “That’s when I heard one of the officers say, ‘Oh, (expletive), we got the wrong guy,’ ” Montanez said.
Montanez, 39, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court on May 6 against Hays County, the city of San Marcos and nine law enforcement agents for injuries he says he sustained that morning last summer, July 13.
Even after officers realized that he was not the suspect, he said, they kept him in handcuffs for half an hour while they questioned him and ran a warrant check that came up with nothing. Then they let him go.
Montanez, who lives in Guadalupe County, said that one of the officers told him they were looking for one of hisbrothers, who lives at a different address.
Sheriff’s officials in Hays County and San Marcos police declined to comment.
The county’s insurance company paid about $3,700 for the damage to the car, which was totaled, but has never offered an apology or to cover his medical bills. Montanez said he suffered a herniated disc in his back and other injuries during the stop, as well as psychological trauma. Most of all, he says, he wants to know what happened and why.
“It’s an example of government at its worst,” said Montanez’s lawyer, Adam Loewy. “The man was, I would submit, inches from being killed for no reason, and no one from the county or the city of San Marcos has ever come out here to apologize. The government is not supposed to attack its citizens.”
Hays County officials also declined to discuss details of the incident.
“We look forward to the opportunity to clarify some of the facts in the case,” said Mark Kennedy, an attorney for Hays County.
According to a heavily redacted report obtained by Loewy from the Hays County sheriff’s office, the SWAT team was in the area to find a suspect who had warrants out for his arrest. The report does not specify the charges or identify the wanted person.
According to the report, the suspect drove a blue 1993 BMW. Montanez drove a green 1992 BMW 318. When officers observed a dark BMW rounding the curve on Meadowbrook, they stopped the car, the report said.
“Due to the urgency of these warrants and the hazards to neighbors and bystanders, tactics were employed in order to maximize safety to community and swift apprehension of the suspect,” the report states.
The report does not include details about the stop or note whether any shots were fired.
The front end of Montanez’s green BMW is now crumpled from its impact with the SWAT truck. The windshield sports two spider-webbed cracks that look like bullet holes and burn marks that Montanez believes were from flash-bang grenades. The passenger window is gone, broken out during the stop, he said.
“I’m just glad my son wasn’t in the car with me,” said Montanez, who had been scheduled to drive his then 16-year-old son to his mother’s house that morning but had instead dropped him off the night before.
Loewy has represented plaintiffs in several high-profile cases involving allegations of police misconduct. He was the lawyer for the family of Nathaniel Sanders in a wrongful death suit against the Austin Police Department in an officer-involved shooting in 2009. The city settled with the family for $750,000 in that case.
Source-Statesman