Jose Guerena was a U.S. Marine veteran who served in the Iraq War and who was killed in his Tucson, Arizona, home on May 5, 2011, by the Pima County Sheriff's Department SWAT team.

[4] Asleep after returning from a 12-hour overnight shift at the ASARCO Mission mine, Guerena was awakened about 9:30 a.m. by his wife who heard noises outside their house, later identified as flash/bang grenades deployed by police in the back yard as a diversion.

[11] He instructed his wife and 4-year-old son to hide inside a closet while he grabbed his AR-15 rifle and crouched down preparing to defend himself from the unidentified people breaking into his home.

The Sheriff's Department initially claimed that Guerena had fired on officers; at least three of the SWAT members including the team commander reported in their post-operation debriefings that they had observed muzzle flashes aimed at them from inside the house.

"[14] Other versions of this story claim that officers started shooting after Guerena pointed the gun at them, though under questioning they were initially unsure whether he had actually moved to target them.

[12] A video of the raid shows roughly 38 seconds expired from the time the police briefly sounded a siren upon pulling into Guerena's driveway until they shot him.

[13] Guerena had been arrested in January 2009 after being involved in a traffic stop with two other individuals where a gun and a small amount of marijuana were found, but was not charged.

[23][24] In the affidavit filed to support the search warrant, Pima Detective Alex Tisch had claimed that Guerena had "five felony arrests involving drugs" but no convictions.

[25] Guerena's widow states that she had no knowledge that the man she saw pointing a gun at her through the window was a police officer, and thought that he was part of a home invasion group.

[27] Upon request of Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, a judge sealed the search warrants as well as the documents showing what items were seized from the home.

[29] Scileppi was critical of the investigation leading up to the requesting of a search warrant, claiming that probable cause did not exist as to Jose Guerena.

[31] Attorney Michael Storie, the Pima County Deputy Sheriff's Association's in-house counsel represented the officers involved in a number of press conferences defending their actions.

Alejandro Guerena, the alleged leader of the smuggling operation, was arrested in Mexico, returned to Pima County, and on June 25, 2013, was sentenced to 105 days in jail plus five years of probation after pleading guilty to attempted possession of marijuana for sale and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The Oathkeepers say on their website that they are determined "to take a stand against the egregious policy of using SWAT teams to serve search warrants on veterans and gun owners with no violent criminal history.

[from Brian Miller's email]: "My concern is with the policies themselves, and whether or not there are better ways for law enforcement, not only here in Pima County but throughout the United States, to conduct themselves so as to minimize risk to the officers, suspects and innocent civilians who may be caught up in police actions.If SWAT members had been let into the home, those inside "probably ... wouldn't have been arrested," Storie said.The lawsuit claims the detective who signed the warrant was negligent by misrepresenting facts that were crucial to showing there was probable cause for the raid.