Police slaying of man raises neighborhood tensions

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - When a Montgomery County police officer killed 25-year-old Hector Jose Marinero on Friday night, he also raised suspicion of police in an already uneasy, mostly Latino neighborhood.

Around 5:45 p.m., two officers saw Marinero standing with a club outside an apartment complex on the 700 block of University Boulevard East, police said. As they approached, Marinero left, and the officers were escorted by two neighbors to a basement apartment where they found him with the club.

Marinero then led one officer to a back bedroom, where police said he pulled out a handgun and two shots were fired. It remains unclear who fired first, but it was Marinero who was killed.

“It’s very frightening and worries me about the police,” said Carlos Ruiz, 22, who lives in the area.

In recent weeks, the nearby corner of University Boulevard East and Piney Branch Road has been the focal point of a police investigation into the shooting of a store clerk followed by the carjacking of a Comcast van at the 7-Eleven that sits on the intersection.

The 7-Eleven is well-populated by an ever-rising number of day laborers. And the police shooting comes at a time when economic downturn has hit the Latino community particularly hard, making the need for a close relationship more important than ever, said community liaison Officer Luis Hurtado. He declined to comment specifically on the case or its effect on police-Latino relationships.

With the investigation still ongoing, it’s not clear whether there will be any long-term damage to what has been an increasingly close friendship, said Mario Quiroz, spokesman for CASA de Maryland.

The key to keeping the relationship alive, Quiroz said, will be to keep lines of communication open between the groups.

“In general, it’s a good relationship when both parts look for solutions,” he said.

But while police in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties will be holding a regularly scheduled meeting with Latino community leaders Wednesday, where Quiroz said the shooting is sure to come up, Montgomery has also made cuts to its police community liaison division.

Hurtado, who has spent years building contacts within the community, said he’s heading back to patrol as the group is disbanded. County officials have said some liaisons will continue to do their work, just not as a separate division.

fklopott@dcexaminer.com

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