The Latest on the David Silva Case: Returned Videos and Unanswered Questions

May 16, 2013
10:47 AM

As the alleged beating death of David Silva at the hands of Kern County and California Highway Patrol officers continues to get national attention (the HuffPost published its first story yesterday), local Bakersfield coverage continues to provide the most current updates.

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Here is one of the case’s latest reports:

Now that the cell phones are back with the people who took them, there is obvious interest in releasing them to the public. As the report says, “An attorney representing the eyewitnesses has not released the video to the public, saying his investigator is working first to copy and preserve the digital files. The attorney says he wants to see if any of the videos may have been altered or deleted.” Yet attorney John Tello has already indicated that a video will be released. However, one witness is already claiming that the one of the videos she took is no longer on her phone.

As for the second video, here is what the report says:

“You could hear some sounds of his voice, moaning or crying out and other officers around him. It did not show any batons, but speaking to the person who took that video, he arrived a little after that and this is what he observed,” said Tello.

Tello said a second video shot by Francisco Arrieta shows deputies performing CPR on Silva.

There also appears to be a third video, that “has apparently been corrupted and is only three seconds long, but shows first responders loading Silva into an ambulance.”

As the report reveals, Tello did assure that the videos will be released:  “As soon as my expert extracts all of the video that we think is in the phones and I have that, I will notify the press and we will let everyone have it. We are not trying to hide anything.”

Latino Rebels has contacted Tello’s office to request notification as to when the videos will be released to the public. In the meantime, another report  from May 13 discusses several of the unanswered questions from the Silva family.

“He had some kind of a problem with the wife, left the house, talked to his mom and said he was going for help at the hospital,” said Ralph Silva, David Silva’s uncle.

David Silva’s uncle said no one knows what happened next. 17 News obtained security video from a home, that appears to show a violent encounter between deputies and Silva, near the hospital.

Deputies said Silva was intoxicated and confrontational. “Maybe he’s trying to defend himself from someone trying to grab him. It doesn’t call for a death,” said Silva.