the death of a woman who was murdered four years ago by her husband of less
than a day. Elisa Gomez was a kind woman who helped everyone who needed
help, from her rescue dogs, to her many friends and sometimes to complete
strangers. Her husband, Bradley Alexander, is a fellow with a history. He
had done jail time for attempting to strangle his ex-wife.
On the evening of her wedding, Elisa and Bradley were heard arguing loudly,
so loudly and violently that a neighbor called the police to investigate.
The police, ignoring policy, did not go inside the house, although that is
protocol in suspected spousal abuse incidents. When the police returned to
investigate an alleged suicide by hanging, it was too late to save Elisa.
Her daughter Jade had come in mid-morning to have brunch with Elisa, and
arrived to find her mother deceased with the explanation that she had
hanged herself. The MPD investigator on the scene was Lt Richard
Zimmerman, who has been in charge of the homicide unit for the past twelve
years. He was sarcastic to Elisa's mother Judy, when she asked him a
question about how many people had been present during the night while
partying was going on and whether all had been questioned. The
"investigation" was done in less than an hour. (On the wall was
written...."Till Death Do Us Party"). Apparently, all death scenes are to
be treated as potential crime scenes until a coroner takes over. That
protocol was not followed. The coroner's interesting conclusion was that
homicide could not be ruled out. The family continues to pursue the truth
to get justice from a disinterested and gratuitously cruel system. Bradley
remains free and continues to flout the law, and is now on probation for a
parole violation which involved fleeing the state with a young woman and
her two children, ending when he broke into a home belonging to a law
officer.
The treatment of this horrifying case points to the obvious question of
whether police are performing their duty to investigate. It points a finger
at the justice system in not assessing Bradley when he was released from
jail after his attempted strangulation of his first wife. According to the
Training Institute for Strangulation Prevention, *"we know unequivocally
that strangulation is one of the most lethal forms of domestic violence:
unconsciousness may occur within seconds and death within minutes.*
Strangulation is, in fact, one of the best predictors for the subsequent
homicide of victims of domestic violence."
https://www.strangulationtraininginstitute.com/impact-of-strangulation-crimes/
One of the most important functions of police is the prevention of crime.
The Minneapolis Police Department does a poor job of this. Officers taken
off the street for being too "expensive", are often placed in higher level
jobs where their influence is, of course, negative. Case in point is former
officer Mike Sauro (Million Dollar Mike), who taught in his Use of Force
classes that blows to the head are not considered lethal force. This has
cost the city a lot of money and has left victims with a life of
unrelenting pain. Mr Sauro again failed in his role as head of the Sex
Crimes Unit, which apparently was found to have overlooked 1700 rape kits.
Sauro stated " It should be noted that there are legitimate investigative
and ethical reasons for not testing some rape kits." Somehow I don't trust
Mr Sauro to make the ethical decisions. Yes, there might be one in a
thousand women who lie about such things, but isn't it better to have a
record in case that specimen matches another or multiple samples? Our city
is incredibly rich, thanks to the taxpayers, who I'm sure would support
testing every rape kit to keep women safer.
What Minneapolis can't afford is officers who get promoted due to their
problems being lawful on the street, a clear indication that being a dirty
cop is rewarded. Our city can't afford detectives who don't investigate
cases, and it is increasingly clear that the MPD, BCA and Hennepin County
Attorney Mike Freeman are not doing the work involved in thorough
investigation of cases. For further information, go to cuapb.org to take a
look at a few of the BCA cases re-examined by CUAPB volunteers to see what
a real investigation looks like. Before we defund the police, let's get the
MPD, BCA and Freeman functioning as they are directed by statute and see
how that works.
Janet Nye
Phillips