FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: No Jail Deaths Coalition | nojaildeathstucson@protonmail.com
FATHER & BROTHER OF GRIEVING MOTHER ARRESTED AT PROTEST AGAINST JAIL DEATHS
TUCSON, Arizona–Last night, February 11, 2022, two people were arrested and a third was detained for several hours following a protest at the Pima County Jail.
The protest was a celebration for Frances Guzman’s birthday. An unlikely place to hold a birthday party, Guzman asked the community to show up in honor of her son, Cruz Patino Jr., who lost his life behind bars in August 2021 due to medical neglect.
In an act of extreme cowardice, Pima County Sheriffs followed the two men as they tried to leave, waiting until other protestors had left and the men were on a secluded and dark residential street. The men were forced from the vehicle at gun-point and held for hours in the back of sheriff vehicles, before being taken to the jail.
The family of Cruz Patino Jr. is being targeted by the Pima County Sheriff’s department because they refuse to let their loved one die without consequence or acknowledgement. Patino died in custody in August, hours before his mother, Frances Guzman, had a scheduled visit with him.
“Next time send out Nanos, we want to talk to him,” shouted Guzman at the protest, who has questions for the Pima County Sheriff about what happened to her son under his watch. Thirteen people have died since he assumed office in January 2021.
COMMUNITY MEMBERS WILL GATHER AT THE JAIL, TODAY AT 11AM, TO DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THE TWO MEN HELD IN CUSTODY.
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No Jail Deaths 