Gonzalo Martinez had no criminal record.

His mother says he was a hard-working young man in an import-export business who supported her while helping to put his brother through college.

But on Feb. 15, 2002, he was shot dead after being pulled over for a traffic violation by Downey, Calif., police. A video, shown last night on "The O'Reilly Factor," appears to show the young man raising his hands on the orders of the police before being shot repeatedly by a police officer wielding an assault rifle.

The shooting brought months of protests in Downey and was shown repeatedly on local Spanish-language television and in Argentina, where Martinez's parents came from.

A coroner's report stated that, when Martinez later emerged from his car, he made "furtive" movements with one hand, which led the police to open fire.

Steve Lerman, the attorney who is representing the family in a lawsuit against the city, said that he has been trying, so far without success, to obtain a copy of the police video and that he believes there may even be a third video, shot from a police helicopter.

If the eyewitnesses are given proper credence, "they'll have no choice but to find that this shooting was not only not justified but was a criminal act," Lerman said.
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