On February 22, 2022, 54-year-old Tracy Gaeta was going through a difficult depression. Her family doesn’t know how the grandmother ended up in Stockton, California – but they do know she never made it back home.
Everything began when Gaeta’s car accidentally hit a police SUV at a red light. When she continued driving, it turned into a full-on pursuit – that ended with officer Kyle Ribera finding her stopped at a dead-end street. When he shouted at her, Gaeta reversed into his car, then drove back and forth.
The fact that she never stopped her car makes what Ribera did next an extra dangerous abuse of power.
Ribera opened fire over 30 times into Gaeta’s car, emptying his clip, then loading AGAIN. She was pronounced dead not too long after, despite never having actually posed a threat.
Nationally, police officers are NOT supposed to shoot at moving cars. Not only can the bullets immediately kill the driver or bystanders, but if the driver is hit, they can lose control of their car and kill someone else on the road. And yet, nationally, police keep doing it!
Why do police continue to shoot at moving cars, even in non-threatening cases like Gaeta's? Because the system of policing prioritizes abusing its power to escalate situations with careless violence, instead of actually protecting us from violence.