Luis Enrique Monroy Bracamontes is a convicted murderer who killed police officers in Northern California. On 24 October 2014, Bracamontes opened fire on three Northern California sheriff's deputies, killing two and wounding the third while a civilian was also wounded in the shooting. Bracamontes is a citizen of Mexico and a convicted drug dealer who was in the United States illegally. Bracamontes was sentenced to death in 2018. Bracamontes' case earned attention during the 2018 midterm elections when the Trump administration ran an ad blaming Democrats for the murders by Bracamontes. Fact-checkers found the assertions about Democrats in the ad to be false and the ad was described as racist. Cable channels such as Fox News, CNN and NBC stopped airing the ad and Facebook banned it from its platform.
Arrests and deportations
Bracamontes was an illegal immigrant who had been previously deported twice. He was first deported in 1997 after being convicted in Arizona on charges of possessing narcotics for sale. In 1998, he was arrested again on drug charges in Phoenix, but was released "for reasons unknown" by former Maricopa CountySheriff Joe Arpaio, a Republican and immigration hardliner whom President Donald Trumppardoned after a contempt of court conviction on 25 August 2017. Bracamontes was arrested and deported to Mexico again in 2001.
Shootings and criminal conviction
Bracamontes was using the name Marcelo Marquez when he shot and killed two sheriff's deputies and shot and injured a third deputy and a civilian. Detective Michael Davis and Deputy Sheriff Danny Oliver were killed in the Sacramento area shooting. Bracamontes was sentenced to death.
Approximately one week before the 2018 midterm elections, the Trump administration ran an ad that linked Bracamontes to Democrats, accusing Democrats of letting Bracamontes and other dangerous undocumented immigrants into the United States. The ad drew widespread and bipartisan condemnation and was compared to the infamous Willie Horton ad during the 1988 presidential campaign. Republican Senator Jeff Flake said the ad was "a new low in campaigning" and "sickening", Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich said "all Americans should reject this ad and its motives" and Representative Carlos Curbelo condemned the ad as part of a "a divide-and-conquer strategy". Fact-checkers at PolitiFact, The Washington Post and The Sacramento Bee found that the assertions "Democrats let him into our country" and "Democrats let him stay" were false. CNN refused to air the ad, describing it as a "racist anti-immigration commercial". NBC and Fox News aired the ad, but later said that they would not air it. Facebook pulled the ad from its platform, saying it violated the community standards.
