KENNEWICK — A wife being used as a human shield by her husband was shot in the forehead by a police officer in her southeast Pasco home, alleges a lawsuit filed against the city of Pasco.
A bullet ripped open Maria Vargas-Gomez’s skull, leaving her brain exposed, and more than two years later she remains unable to care for herself, according to the lawsuit filed in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court. Her younger two children are in foster care.
On Dec. 7, 2022, Maria Vargas-Gomez, a mother of four, called police because her husband, Jose Jara-Delacruz, was assaulting her, according to a court document.
Four Pasco police officers responded at a mobile home in southeast Pasco “ill-prepared and ill-trained, without a tactical plan or thought of de-escalation,” according to the lawsuit.
They did not attempt to talk with Vargas-Gomez or her husband, Jose Jara-Delacruz, to learn whether either had a gun, whether Vargas-Gomez was safe or to otherwise calm the situation, according to the lawsuit.
Initial police reports show the officers could hear screaming inside the house.
The first three to arrive first banged on the door and yelled, “Open the door or we’re gonna bust it down,” according to the lawsuit.
Then Officer Ana Ramos, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, arrived, and positioned herself at the front of the other officers at the door that led into a laundry room.
Domestic violence victim shot
Within 30 seconds, Jara-Delacruz unlocked the door and officers opened it to see him using his left arm to hold his wife by the neck to keep her between him and the door and holding a .40 caliber gun in his right hand.
The lawsuit alleges that his wife was being held in a “hostage posture” and her body blocked any possible shot by police.
At the same time she was struggling to pry the pistol from her husband, and she had both hands on it as the barrel pointed toward the ceiling, said the lawsuit.
One of the officers started to close the door as Ramos unholstered her .45-caliber pistol and fired into the room twice, according to the lawsuit. None of the other officers fired shots.
The lawsuit says that based on police video, the defendants believe the first bullet hit Vargas-Gomez.
A Washington State Patrol report said that she was “likely struck by one of the two shots fired by a responding Pasco police officer.”
The force of one of the bullets knocked Vargas-Gomez backward into her husband and both fell to the floor on their backs, according to the lawsuit.
Then Jara-Delacruz fired shots into the laundry room wall, before officers arrested him, as his wife lay bleeding on the floor, according to the lawsuit.
Two of Vargas-Gomez’s daughters, then ages 13 and 17, saw the shooting.
The lawsuit says that in the aftermath, a detective said, “Well, she’s still alive, but the front of her head is gone. She can’t speak … maybe ever again. She’s in a vegetative state. Maybe for the rest of her life.”
Gunshot victim remains impaired
Vargas-Gomez has undergone numerous surgeries since then.
They started with an emergency surgery to remove splintered portions of her skull and relieve pressure from swelling. Six weeks later surgeons installed synthetic skull pieces.
But her wound became infected, leading to bacterial and fungal growth in her spinal fluid, and portions of her skull had to be removed again.
She was diagnosed with permanent neurological deficits and placed under a guardianship in King County after she was unable to recall basic information about her family and needed assistance with tasks of everyday living, including eating and washing.
Eleven months after the shooting surgeons were able to restore complete coverage of her skull and she was able to undergo physical therapy to relearn to walk and speak, according to the lawsuit.
However, she will never fully recover and remains unable to care for herself or her children, the lawsuit says.
Jara-Delacruz, 51, is being held in the Benton County jail on two attempted murder charges, one involving his wife and the other, Officer Ramos. His trial is scheduled for April 30.
According to a Washington state psychologist’s report he suffers from an alcohol and amphetamine use disorder. He was drinking before the incident but could not remember if he had used illegal drugs, according to the report.
At the time he had been drinking about 18 beers a day or tequila when was working to hide his alcohol use, according to the report.
Lawsuit criticizes Pasco response
The lawsuit claims that the four officers who responded to the incident did not use de-escalation techniques because they lacked training.
It says neither they nor emergency dispatchers used an open phone line into the house to obtain information about Vargas-Gomez’s situation or determine if children was present.
Although it was clear from the 911 call that the household spoke Spanish, none of the officers attempted to talk to either the husband or wife in Spanish, the lawsuit said.
When the door to the the house was not initially opened, officers did not ask to see Vargas-Gomez or to otherwise verify her safety, according to the lawsuit.
Instead, the officers’ actions increased the risk to her, the lawsuit claims.
“Had officers been trained in proper domestic-violence response, they would have assessed the danger, de-escalated the situation and otherwise reduced the risk to Maria,” the lawsuit said.
It claims negligence in what it said was shooting “blindly towards a domestic violence victim, striking her in the head, when protecting that individual is the primary ostensible purpose of the officers’ presence on scene.”
The lawsuit filed on behalf of Vargas-Gomez and her four children asks for compensation for general and special damages, punitive damages and costs of the lawsuit, filed by the Connelly Law Offices in Tacoma. It also asks that all non-exempt public records requested by the plaintiffs be released.
