Family of teen killed in El Centro speaks out
Karina Bazarte
EL CENTRO, Calif. (KYMA) – There is a memorial is dedicated to 14-year-old Mike Jimenez, known to his friends and family as Moso, outside where the teen was shot and killed by the El Centro Police Department (ECPD).
The mother of the teen, Alma Serrano, says she won’t stop fighting until she brings justice for her son.
“‘You’re coming back.’ That was the last thing I said and he said, ‘Yeah, I love you,’ and that was it…by 6:30 he was already deceased,” said Serrano.
On October 5, Jimenez went out to see his friends and later became involved in an incident with ECPD, who shot him multiple times.
“That was murder that was not self-defense…you shoot someone to move them down to stop them from doing something. You don’t shoot my son three bullets in the face blow his head off,” said Serrano.
Serrano says she has not seen the body cam video released by ECPD last week.
“I don’t think any mother wants to see something like that as well as my attorney said that it was edited, so when I am ready to see the video, I’ll be ready in court to see the full video, not parts of it…I want to see the full video,” said Serrano.
However, the sister of the teen, Jasmine Moreno, says she saw the video when it was released. They both think the shooting was uncalled for.
“I heard more than 12 rounds you know, I’ve studied the video my own way and everything, and I just think it was overly excessive. They did not try to deescalate anything. When I seen how the cop cars where position, I was thinking he wasn’t going to go anywhere,” said Moreno.
This past weekend, family members and friends gathered for a walk to demand justice for Jiménez, for his mother and her legal advisors.
“We are here to put pressure on the investigating agencies to do so in an independent way…to have a truly investigation and if not, we are planning on civil justice of our own we will be filing a tort claim,” said Tim Scott, the family’s attorney.
Meanwhile, the family says they will continue to hold rallys and raise awareness for Jimemez.
“We are still going to stand strong for my son, and we are not going to stop we are just not going to stop,” said Serrano.
“I miss him so much. There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think of him. I always passby his room and I look and he is not there,” said Moreno.
We reached out ECPD, but they told us they won’t be commenting at this time.