Moses Almendarez has spent time in jail and he has been shot 5 times but words are what made the 26-year-old cry this morning. Those words were threats really and they allegedly came from a police officer while Almendarez looked down the barrel of a sub-automatic Uzi firearm. He told us that this morning he was on his way to work on Antelope Street Extension when he was stopped by a police mobile. He says a constable searched him and found nothing but the ordeal didn't end there. What happened next left the father of two young children in tears. He told the story to Keith Swift.
Moses Almendarez,
"This man jumped out and grabbed in my shirt and dragged me like 5 feet away from vehicle and he told me, 'man like you I don't like, unu make our job hard.' I told him from 2003 when I got shot up, I haven't been giving any problems. He knows that. He told me, 'you will die - when me and my shottas meet you at night, you will die.' I told him just do what you have to do because I won't run from you. And if I have my gun - honestly one God above, I will shoot after unu because I already know unu wah kill me. I already know you will kill me and I can't go and tell Raccoon Street Station to deal with this because it will go just like that.
This man told me that just like how the rest dead, I will die. Just like that he told me, so he is telling me he will take me away from my family? He is telling me to ride with a gun everyday because if he meets me he will kill me. The corporal didn't even tell him anything. He just pushed his Uzi in my face. To God if his Uzi would go off, my face would be left on the ground there. My marrow would jump out there and he would get away with that.
He mek me know he wah kill me. He told me he will kill me personally like I am in their evil doing business. I don't worry with what they do. They do evil. They don't know to deal with people the right here way. And they want to chance me. He made me cry this morning. I went home and held my daughter and cry."
Keith Swift,
The threat that this police officer made to you, you took or did you take that threat seriously?
Moses Almendarez,
"Bwoy I tek that serious. I put my whole life in front of me right there when he told me that. It is like he could have killed me right there and his two officers would back him up and they would say I had a gun so he had to shoot me. I took that serious. My lil bwoy just 5 months and my daughter is 2 so he is trying to tell me that he will shorten my life from them and I already don't have it good."
Almendarez says he would file a complaint with the Police Department's Internal Affairs Desk. When talked to Press Officer Bart Jones at midday, he was unaware of the complaint.
