Attempted Murder Charges Filed Against Puerto Rico Officer who Fired Shots at 85 yr old woman

From [HERE] and [HERE] A Puerto Rico policeman has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at the car of an 85-year-old handicapped woman. Emanuel Ortiz Diaz also was charged with a weapon violation when he appeared in court on Wednesday.  The officer, who was on a bicycle, fired nine times, but failed to hit the woman, officials said.

Police say Ortiz fired nine shots at the car of Catalina Reyes when she failed to stop after hitting a vehicle while leaving a grocery store earlier this month. One bullet pierced the windshield on the driver's side and another went through the driver's side window.

Police said Reyes received minor cuts from the broken glass. Ortiz did not enter a plea. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 14. Reyes' daughter, Rosa Elsie Rosado, told reporters that her mother has two prosthetic knees. "It was horrific. I never imagined that something like this could happen, much less to my mother," she said. "He didn't notice that she was an elderly person ... He kept shooting like she was an animal."

Carbonell said the officer accused in Monday's shooting, Emanuel Diaz Ortiz, had been with Guaynabo City Police for one year. He said the other officer involved in the case, Eliu Garcia Mercado, did not fire his weapon.

The shooting comes as Puerto Rico's police department faces increased scrutiny following a scathing federal report accusing it of corruption, illegal killings and civil rights violations.

The department also faces a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union accusing it of using excessive force and violating civil rights.

The officer, who was on his bicycle, shot at the woman's car nine times and hit it five times, Victor Carbonell, director of a special investigations unit that probes police shootings, said Tuesday.

One bullet went through the windshield on the driver's side and another through the driver's side window, he said. But no bullets struck the woman.

"It's a miracle she's alive," Carbonell said, adding that it is unclear whether Catalina Reyes Rivera knew she had hit someone when she put the car in reverse. He said the woman inside the car that Reyes hit flagged down the officers who gave chase and forced Reyes out of the car at gunpoint and ordered her to kneel.

Reyes's daughter, Rosa Elsie Rosado, told reporters that her mother has two prosthetic knees.

"It was horrific. I never imagined that something like this could happen, much less to my mother," she said. "He didn't notice that she was an elderly person ... He kept shooting like she was an animal."

Carbonell said Ortiz, had been with Guaynabo City Police for one year. He said the other officer involved in the case, Eliu Garcia Mercado, did not fire his weapon.