CANDLELIGHT VIGIL HELD IN SAN JOSE FOR SLAIN MAN

More than 80 people gathered in downtown San Jose on Tuesday night for a
candlelight vigil demanding an open inquiry into the Feb. 17 shooting death
of Rodolfo "Rudy" Cardenas by a state drug agent who mistook him for a
fugitive parolee.

Cardenas, a 43-year-old father of five, was shot while running from a
Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agent who chased him from the home of a
fugitive parolee who was considered dangerous. Cardenas was unarmed, but
police said the drug agent feared he was about to be shot.

"This is my blood on the ground," Jesse Villarreal, 27, told the crowd as
he stood with a candle in the spot in an alley at St. James and Fourth
streets where his uncle collapsed in the shooting. "We can't be letting
innocent people die. It hurts me inside because I can't see my uncle any
more. They say, 'We understand.' But they don't understand."

The crowd held a moment of silence, prayed and sang the Latin-American folk
song "De Colores," "Amazing Grace" and "We Shall Overcome."

Many wore white T-shirts printed with Cardenas' picture. Dozens of candles
and flowers marked the spot along a chain link fence where Cardenas fell. A
paper sign read, "We Want Justice."

It was the second such vigil since the shooting. San Jose police are
investigating the incident, and the district attorney's office will take
the case before a criminal grand jury for review, a standard procedure in
officer-involved shootings.

Cardenas' family and supporters are calling on the district attorney to
request an open grand jury hearing like the one held for last summer's
fatal shooting of a Vietnamese mother by a San Jose policeman who was later
cleared of wrongdoing.

"I just want them to give us an honest, open investigation into what
happened," said Cardenas' brother, Raul Cardenas, 59, who wore a yellow
jacket with a bull's-eye and "police target" written on the back. "I just
want justice for my brother."

Cardenas' funeral is Thursday at Oak Hill Funeral Home's Chapel of the Oaks
in San Jose. A "march for justice" is planned Tuesday from the site of the
shooting to City Hall on West Hedding Street.