When a Black teenager died in a house fire during a SWAT raid in Albuquerque, New Mexico, last week, he became the new face of alleged police misconduct in a city where cops have long attracted harsh scrutiny.
But the grim episode was made darker by the fact that the 15-year-old’s own father was killed by a member of one of the law-enforcement agencies involved in the incident.
Shela Rosenau, the boy’s aunt, said in an interview that the death last Thursday of her nephew, Brett, hit hard. Their relationship had only been rekindled in the last few years, after the teen reached out through Facebook with questions about his father’s family.
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And she wondered if knowledge of his dad’s death at the hands of area cops might have factored into his own premature demise.
“I think that may be why little Brett—I think that’s maybe why he could have been scared of cops” and didn’t come out of the house last week in time, she told The Daily Beast.
Last Thursday, Albuquerque Police Department and the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department were pursuing an older man, Qiaunt Kelley, for alleged violation of parole when the man and teen went to a house in the city’s international district. Cops said Kelley had allegedly violated his parole for armed carjacking and stolen vehicle charges.
SWAT became involved in what turned into a standoff, and police sent “devices used to introduce irritants” into the home on San Joaquin Avenue SE, where the man had barricaded himself.
After a fire ignited, witnesses told reporters that police waited while the fire burned for nearly 40 minutes before Kelley was smoked out and arrested with burns on him. Police say that after they determined the smoke was coming from the house, the standoff ended.
It was only then that emergency responders went into the home to look for the minor, identified by police on Sunday as 15-year-old Brett Rosenau.
“Forty minutes of smoke inhalation will kill anybody. That’s common sense,” Shela Rosenau told The Daily Beast.
“So for them to wait 40 minutes, that’s just not right. That’s horrible,” she said. “I believe in that situation you save a life and they needed to go in there… I mean, that’s their job. They should not have sat back and waited for them to come out.“
After police extracted the boy from the flames, witnesses told Source New Mexico that his body was left in front of the home. Police said Rosenau died of smoke inhalation.
Deja, the daughter of the homeowners unrelated to the Rosenaus, told Source New Mexico that her family was pleading with police that there was a boy still inside.
“And they let him die, burn,” she told Source New Mexico.
Police now say they are investigating whether the fire could have been started by their own devices, similar versions of which have been known to cause fires.
The Bernalillo Sheriff’s Department referred requests for comment and questions by The Daily Beast to the Albuquerque Police Department.
The APD did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
“I know many people in our community are hurting right now, and appreciate everyone’s patience while the incident is thoroughly investigated,” said APD Chief Harold Medina in a statement released by the department on Sunday. “If any of our actions inadvertently contributed to his death, we will take steps to ensure this never happens again.”
Brett Rosenau’s father, also named Brett, was shot and killed on New Year’s Eve 2006 by a Bernalillo County Sheriff’s deputy while fleeing law enforcement on foot after a traffic stop, according to reporting by the Albuquerque Journal. Cops said the elder Rosenau was shot when he brandished a weapon at the pursuing deputy.
Shela Rosenau, who along with her relatives dispute that her brother had a weapon when he was killed, said the shooting had ruptured the family.
“You know, like, I don’t know, it just—it broke up that type of relationship that we could have had,” she said.
Three years later, the shooting was ruled “justified” by a grand jury, according to reporting by the Journal.
Although police were quick to state this week that the younger Rosenau “was not shot by anyone,” the boy’s death is the latest in many instances of deaths connected to Albuquerque police. In 2014, the Justice Department found Albuquerque cops “engaged in a pattern or practice of excessive force that violates the Constitution and federal law.”
While the ongoing consent decree that followed was targeted at the local police department, cops said that at least one member of the sheriff’s department behind the teen’s father’s death was also on hand at the raid.
It was at the elder Brett Rosenau’s funeral that Shela said she met Amanda Lopez, who was then pregnant with the future sports aficionado who would be named after his father. Shela Rosenau said the families have been estranged since.
In a statement released by her attorneys after the teen’s death, Lopez called her son a multi-talented athlete who was “a smart and funny young boy who walked to the beat of his own drum.” The boy was known by his mother as “pioneering” and not deterred by his smaller stature when playing sports like baseball and football.
“He was never shy to be affectionate and loving,” said the statement. “His mother was always amazed that he was never embarrassed when she would ask for him to hug or kiss her in front of his friends.”
After his death, the family is taking time to grieve and still “searching for answers,” said Lopez’s lawyer Taylor Smith.
“We also don’t want this to go swept under the rug,” said Smith. “So we along with the ACLU requested for an independent and transparent investigation into the police conduct.”
The boy, said his aunt, was ever curious about his father—and lawyers for the Lopez family confirmed that he was aware of the way that his own father had died.
“He was really excited to see some pictures that I sent to him [of his father]. He was just excited just to meet family” when he reached out over Facebook roughly four years ago, said Shela Rosenau.
She didn’t know him as well as others in his life, she said. But if their chats showed her anything, it was this:
“He's an awesome kid, “ Shela Rosenau told The Daily Beast.
