On May 24 2021, Glen Ray Cockrum, Jr., a long haul truck driver with ties to Baxter County, was shot and killed by law enforcement officers in Nogales, Arizona.
Cockrum’s mother, Cora Waller of Shirley in Van Buren County, filed a civil suit in federal court in Tucson, Arizona seeking unspecified monetary damages for the death of her son.
Late last month, a federal judge issued a 43 page ruling dismissing Waller’s suit against all the defendants. The dismissal was with prejudice, meaning it cannot be filed again.
The lawsuit alleged that officers from the Nogales Police Department and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office fired at least 122 bullets at Cockrum’s truck during one ninety second period during an event that lasted about two hours and covered several locations.
In her suit, Cockrum’s mother contends police “acted as judge, jury and executioner” in killing her son.
In the answer to the mother’s suit, a lawyer for the defendants writes, Cockrum “threatened the lives of citizens and law enforcement officers” on the day he was killed.
The defendants say the incident was reviewed by the Arizona Department of Public Safety and a prosecuting attorney and that both “found the use of lethal force as necessary and fully justified.”
Cockrum started the day on May 24 2021 by delivering cargo to a Phoenix warehouse. He had received instructions from his company to pick up a load of watermelons in Nogales destined for Minnesota.
WHY NOGALES?
Nogales and Santa Cruz County are located along a major north-south corridor connecting the United States with Mexico. There are approximately 85 fresh produce warehouses in the county.
As Cockrum and hundreds of other drivers do daily, he was to go to one of those warehouses, pick up a load of produce and then transport it to its destination.
The produce is grown in Mexico, brought north, crosses through the international land port and is temporarily stored in refrigerated warehouses in Santa Cruz County. The produce is then loaded onto other trucks and carried to destinations throughout the U.S.
WENT TO WRONG WAREHOUSE
Cockrum initially wound up at the wrong warehouse and was asked to move since his truck and trailer were blocking busy loading bays.
An employee said Cockrum never left the cab of his truck. He said the truck did eventually move, but reported Cockrum had waved a knife at him and another employee before driving off.
Workers at the original location called for law enforcement. A Santa Cruz sheriff’s deputy arrived after Cockrum had moved his truck a short distance and parked at the correct warehouse.
The deputy went to the new location and attempted to contact Cockrum. He told investigators looking into the incident that Cockrum remained seated and silent in the cab.
The deputy reported Cockrum displayed a knife and made a gesture as if slitting his own throat. He said there was also a gesture as if Cockrum was “licking the knife.”
An additional deputy and two agents with the Border Patrol arrived.
GUNS DRAWN AT SECOND WAREHOUSE
The two deputies were reported to have pulled their weapons, aimed them at Cockrum and used a public address system in a patrol vehicle to order him out of the truck.
The mother’s lawsuit says when guns were first drawn, “the officers had probable cause to believe that Cockrum had committed nothing more than a misdemeanor trespassing offense” when he parked at the wrong warehouse.
Shortly after guns were displayed, Cockrum is reported to have put his truck in gear and began to slowly move away.
The defendant’s answer alleges by the time Cockrum left the second warehouse he had committed much more than a “misdemeanor trespassing offense.” The crimes alleged included aggravated assault, unlawful flight, and disorderly conduct with a deadly weapon.
In the answer filed by the defendants it is claimed that the mother’s suit wrongly characterizes Cockrum’s rampage of violence as nothing more than a “slow-speed chase,” a case of “misdemeanor trespassing” or a “fender bender.”
ERRATIC DRIVING ON INTERSTATE
After leaving the second warehouse, Cockrum wound up on Interstate 19 and approached a Border Patrol checkpoint.
He was reported to have crossed over the median dividing the northbound and southbound lane of the Interstate. Law enforcement believed he was trying to avoid the checkpoint.
It was at this point officers began shooting at the tires on the truck and trailer.
By this time, Cockrum’s truck was described in the mother’s lawsuit as being followed by “a long procession” of law enforcement vehicles from several agencies
According to the lawsuit, Cockrum exited the freeway and eventually wound up in a busy Walmart parking lot where he stopped and remained in the truck’s cab.
The Nogales chief of police said he was helping to direct traffic at one intersection when Cockrum’s truck passed by his location on the way to the Walmart store. In documents dealing with the events of that day, the chief is quoted as saying, “As he passed by . . . I just raised my hands like ‘what the hell, buddy?’ We locked eyes and the guy just flips me off and keeps driving south.”
LETHAL FORCE NOT AUTHORIZED
At one point, a Nogales police officer radioed a request for authorization to use deadly force. He is alleged not to have received an answer.
The chief of police and an incident commander were both on the “rather chaotic scene” but are also reported not to have used their authority to allow the employment of deadly force, the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, “in the absence of direction, various officers made their own decisions – often without communicating their intention to others on the scene.”
Various plans were developed to stop Cockrum’s truck and bring the situation to a close — including cutting brake lines on the trailer in hope of locking up the wheels.
Spike strips were employed and a plan was developed to break out one of the truck windows and deploy a non-lethal flash bang grenade inside the truck cab. The window was broken but the officer was reported to have been unable to activate the device. Once the window had been smashed, Cockrum put the truck in gear and began to inch forward.
LOW SPEED PURSUIT
Toward the end of the event, there was a somewhat strange pursuit in which Cockrum’s truck moved very slowly. One report estimated the speed at no more than 5-10 miles an hour.
Because brake lines on the trailer had been cut at a time when the brakes were engaged, the wheels locked up and the trailer was basically being dragged.
At that point, heavy gunfire erupted and the situation became even more chaotic.
The Nogales police chief told Arizona Department of Public Safety investigators looking into the fatal encounter, that when the gunfire began, he “had no idea what was happening.”
Another officer called to the scene told investigators he did not know why the truck was being chased. He said he only knew “the truck didn’t wanna stop.”
The lawsuit claims that nine or more officers fired as many as 122 bullets at the truck within a 90 second period.
Cockrum was hit by three bullets causing his death. The mother’s lawsuit claims that as the event played itself out, police officers became resolute to bring things to an end: “They had decided to kill Glen Cockrum.”
It is also alleged in the suit that police officers had become frustrated by Cockrum’s refusal to stop and his total lack of verbal communication.
During the incident, according to multiple sources, shots were fired at the truck at three locations – the Border Patrol checkpoint, the Walmart parking lot and a spot on Grand Avenue where the majority of the shooting took place.
LETHAL FORCE JUSTIFIED
After he reviewed information pertaining to Cockrum’s death, Santa Cruz County Attorney George Silva determined that all of the officers involved in the incident had been justified in using lethal force.
Among the many allegations of wrongdoing, the mothers lawsuit lists:
– Police power was used in an arbitrary manner.
– There was no justification to use deadly force.
– There was no imminent threat posed by Cockrum’s truck at the moment the gunfire began.
– That even after an extensive, year-long investigation there is only a “murky picture” of “why officers believed it was necessary to engage in a lengthy police chase and shootout.”
– That during the investigation, none of the officers who fired from one location “could identify an imminent threat posed by Cockrum’s vehicle.”
The lawsuit points out that at the time he was shot and killed by police, Cockrum could only have been charged with no more than four misdemeanor offenses.
Those offenses would have included running two red lights and trespassing on the property of the first warehouse where he parked in error.
The defendants disagree.
MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS
In the family’s lawsuit, it is alleged law enforcement officers “failed to recognize that Cockrum’s behavior was consistent with a mental health crisis.”
Arkansas court records do contain evidence that Cockrum was dealing with mental problems.
In a petition filed in 2020 seeking a protective order to keep Cockrum away from her, a woman who had lived with him and had children by him described some of his behavior.
She said he heard voices and would put his fingers in his ears to try and silence them. He was also reported to have believed the home they lived in was bugged.
The woman said he also saw “things that were not there” and believed China was trying to bring poisoned rice into America.
She reported that he was convinced that the coronavirus was China’s attempt at mass genocide.
The petition was dismissed in mid-June 2021, just about a month after his death.
DRUG IN SYSTEM
During an autopsy performed two days after the incident, Cockrum was found to have only one questionable substance in his system — a stimulate known as Benzoyleogonine. The amount of the drug was well over the reporting limit, according to the medical examiner’s report.
In literature focusing on drugs and drug use, Benzoyeogonine is described as a powerful stimulate drug said to promote energy, alertness and a sense of power.
It is listed as a “major metabolite of cocaine” with a number of side effects including causing a user to hallucinate.
At the time he was killed, Cockrum had a valid Commercial Driver’s License (CDL) that would require him to be drug tested.
The attorney representing the family said, despite what drug tests may have shown, there was no justification for Cockrum to have been shot at 122 times in 90 seconds.
DAMAGES SOUGHT
The lawsuit had asked for damages in an unspecified amount.
The family was represented by Paul Gattone, an attorney practicing in Tucson. Cockrum’s mother is the personal representative of his estate.
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