THE GONZALEZ FAMILY BURIES THEIR CHILD, PLIGHT TOUCHES COMMUNITY

By Juan Montoya
Touched by the sight of the  Cummings Middle School classmates of slain teen Jaime Gonzalez Jr. collecting donations in tin cans at street corners to help pay for his funeral, local businessman and former port commissioner Mario Villarreal took it upon himself to lend a hand and challenged other residents of Brownsville to do the same.
Late Wednesday, Villarreal and his nephew Markie showed up at the Garza funeral Home on 11th and Jackson streets and handed his mother a check made out to the funeral home for $1,000 to help for her son's funeral expenses.
 "This is such a community tragedy and these are such humble people," said a visibly touched Villarreal. "As a community we must look past pointing fingers and blaming people and help them in their time of need."
Late Thursday night, a crowd of visitors estimated at nearly 400 to 500 people including students from Cummings Middle School were on hand at Garza Funeral Home to pay their respects to the slain teen. Television crews and media representatives were on hand. However, one visitor noted that there were no representatives of the city commission, the mayor, or the police department on hand.
In a related event, sources close to the police department indicate that interim police chief Orlando Rodriguez had been taken to Valley Baptist Hospital in Brownsville to be treated for stress. Those sources said the events surrounding the shooting of the teen and the intense scrutiny his department was receiving apparently led to him seeking medial help.
The Texas Rangers are now investigating the Tuesday morning shooting of the teen by two Brownsville police officers who were ordered by superiors over their police radio to "take him down" after receiving reports that the teen was refusing to drop his weapon. That "weapon" turned out to be a pellet gun, and not a lethal weapon as police originally thought.

Although three shots had been fired, preliminary autopsy results released on Thursday show that Gonzalez died from two gunshot wounds. One gunshot wound was in his chest while the other was in his abdomen.
According to the autopsy, a wound to the back of his head was from when Gonzalez fell.

Both officers were placed on administrative leave.
However, that impression – that the pellet gun was a firearm – was intentionally left in the press releases issued by the Brownsville Police Department and by statements issued by the Brownsville independent School District. It was finally admitted that it was a pellet gun during a late afternoon during a press conference held at the PD on  Jackson Street.
And, as if to counter the police department's statements that progressively leaned toward picturing Gonzalez as a potentially violent teenager, his friends at the school set up a website that shows him as an average teenager who played in the Red Ant band and made good grades in school. That he enjoyed a wide circle of friends was evident when a donor put a dollar bill into the collection tin his friends had brought to the police department lobby and asked them why they were doing it.
"What they're saying about hims is not true," answered one of the six or seven girls holding signs requesting donations for his funeral. "He wasn't a violent person. He was our friend."
Villarreal said that his wife and sister had each pitched in an additional $100 to help the family defray the funeral expenses. He lamented the events that led to the death of the teen.
"It always seems to happen to the poorest people," he said. "I hope the community supports them in these difficult moments. It doesn't matter whether you think what he did was right or wrong. The death of someone so young under these circumstance is a tragic thing for everyone involved. We must reach out to the officers and the family of this young man to help them get through this."
Villarreal encouraged those so willing to contribute toward the funeral expenses to contact the funeral home or call him at (956) 546-1369 during the day.