{"id":60119,"date":"2016-12-13T09:41:09","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=60119"},"modified":"2016-12-13T09:41:09","modified_gmt":"2016-12-13T13:41:09","slug":"why-are-the-bakersfield-police-shooting-an-unarmed-73-year-old-man-with-dementia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/?p=60119","title":{"rendered":"Why are the Bakersfield police shooting an unarmed, 73-year-old man with dementia?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Police fatally shoot unarmed 73-year-old Calif. man, who family said suffered from dementia<\/h1>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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By Travis M. Andrews
\nThe Washington Post<\/p>\n

http:\/\/twitter.com\/LosAngelesCP\/status\/808562140206350336?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/p>\n

Police in Bakersfield, Calif., shot and killed an unarmed 73-year-old man whose family claimed was suffering from dementia.<\/p>\n

Details of the incident, which occurred about 12:30 a.m. Monday, remain scant at this time.<\/p>\n

Police responded to a report that a man in the 7900 block of Silver Birch Ave. was brandishing a weapon,\u00a0Bakersfield police Sgt. Gary Carruesco told<\/a> KBAK.<\/p>\n

When they arrived, Francisco Serna was standing in the driveway, though it is unclear as to why.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs some point during that contact, an officer fired several rounds striking the individual,\u201d Carruesco said.<\/p>\n

In a statement obtained by the Associated Press<\/a>, the Kern County coroner said\u00a0Francisco Serna was declared dead on the scene at 1:15 a.m.<\/p>\n

After canvassing the area well into Monday afternoon, police did not recover a gun. According to one of Serna\u2019s sons, he did not own one.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy dad did not own a gun. He was a 73-year-old retired grandpa, just living life,\u201d Rogelio Serna told<\/a> the Los Angeles Times. \u201cHe should have been surrounded by family at old age, not surrounded by bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rogelio told<\/a> KBAK that his father was against firearms and \u201ceven voted for them to get off the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Rogelio, Francisco showed the early stages of dementia and experienced delusions. He said the elder Serna had trouble sleeping and would often take long walks late at night by himself, in an attempt to tire himself.<\/p>\n

Rogelio told<\/a> the Los Angeles Times police had visited Francisco\u2019s home on at least two other occasions when he became confused and activated a medical alarm. Authorities did not confirm this.<\/p>\n

Francisco had worked at a cotton gin in McFarland for years, but retired in the mid-2000s. He lived with his wife and one of his daughters, according to the Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this point, the investigation really slows down while we interview everyone involved, all officers, and attempt to\u00a0locate video surveillance and things like that,\u201d\u00a0Carruesco\u00a0told<\/a> KBAK.<\/p>\n

The officer who fired the shots is on administrative leave pending an investigation, KBAK reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\nhttp:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/news\/morning-mix\/wp\/2016\/12\/13\/police-fatally-shoot-unarmed-73-year-old-calif-man-who-family-said-suffered-from-dementia\/?utm_term=.3fa7ef35fa6c<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Police fatally shoot unarmed 73-year-old Calif. man, who family said suffered from dementia<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation2012.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}