Warden man denies involvement in police shooting

EPHRATA - A Warden man said he is afraid for his life and did not snitch on his drug dealer following the police shooting of a suspected methamphetamine dealer in a Moses Lake grocery store parking lot earlier this month.

Moses Lake police Sgt. Brian Jones shot suspected methamphetamine dealer Roberto Escamilla Mendoza, 36, of Moses Lake twice after he backed into two police cars during a drug bust on Sept. 5, according to police records.

Those records show police knew Escamilla Mendoza was a methamphetamine dealer because Raoul Jimenez, 46, of Warden told them his name, phone number, physical description, where he worked and what type of car he drove when Jimenez was arrested for possession of meth a day prior.

Jimenez said that is not true.

In an interview with the Columbia Basin Herald, Jimenez said Escamilla Mendoza, whom he calls Robert, was a close friend and the father of his grandchild.

"I wouldn't snitch on Robert. He is my friend and has been very good to my daughter," he said. He said he did not set up Escamilla Mendoza, but was just trying to get some meth for personal use after being released form jail.

"First and foremost I'm an addict. When addicts get out of jail that (buying drugs) is the first thing they do," he said.

According to court documents and Jimenez, he tried to use his cellphone while being released from the Grant County Jail between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. on Sept. 5. Police records show Jimenez used his cellphone and called Escamilla Mendoza to meet in the Lep-re-kon parking lot to buy methamphetamine.

Jimenez said he called Escamilla Mendoza to set up the drug deal, but did so on the jail pay phone and police must have been listening in on that conversation. He said that is how police knew about Escamilla Mendoza's drug dealing, not because he told them.

According to Jimenez, he has bought meth from Escamilla Mendoza in the store parking lot about 60 times in the previous six months.

He said a taxi that was supposed to pick him up from the jail and take him to the Lep-re-kon parking lot was running late so he went to a tavern across the street from the jail to have a drink and wait.

When the taxi came and brought him by the grocery store parking lot he said he saw all the police vehicles and Escamilla Mendoza's 2002 Honda Accord and told the taxi driver to keep going.

"I thought maybe somebody robbed him or something like that," Jimenez said.

After an article in the Columbia Basin Herald reported Jimenez was arrested the day prior to the shooting and told police about Escamilla Mendoza he said he began receiving death threats. He said Escamilla Mendoza is "deep in the Mexican mafia" and Jimenez is in hiding because he is afraid the mafia will kill him.

After the shooting, Escamilla Mendoza was initially taken to Samaritan Healthcare in Moses Lake and was later flown to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

As of Sept. 16, Escamilla Mendoza was still in the Intensive Care Unit of the hospital.

After his arrest police found 5.7 lbs of meth, $4,600 in cash and eight fraudulent identification cards in Escamilla Mendoza's home.