Night Raid is a story about the tragic death of a Pomona SWAT officer … and the story of the man accused of killing him.
Ask any public defender in the LA criminal courts to name the most complicated and heart-wrenching case in the past decade and almost everyone will tell you it’s The People vs. David Martinez. Ask the prosecutors and they’ll admit the case is tragic. But complicated? No. They say it’s murder plain and simple.
There is no dispute that Officer Shaun Diamond was a man of good character whose death is horrific … or that David Martinez was affiliated with a motorcycle club that had conflicts with law enforcement. But Night Raid avoids a rush to judgment and considers all aspects of a very murky case. And in the process explores our own prejudices and preconceptions about cause and effect, guilt and innocence … even punishment and redemption.
There are no videos of the raid and David Martinez isn’t an ACLU poster boy. He’s a family man with vices that may have contributed to the shotgun blast that killed Diamond on the night of October 28, 2014. In the eight episodes of Night Raid, we unravel the compelling story of The People vs. David Martinez – not just the events of David’s two trials but the reasons for the SWAT raid and the planning behind it, the relationship between David and the Mongols Motorcycle Club, and how the intertwined narratives of this story reflect larger issues in our judicial system. The series takes an intimate look at Diamond’s death through unprecedented access to search warrant materials and recordings of detective interviews with David’s family and other Pomona SWAT officers.
