An American Patriots Story
On January 15, 2021, in the early hours of the morning, an Iraqi war veteran, law enforcement veteran and American Patriot’s life would be turned upside down for defending the United States of America. This man’s name is Alfredo Luna, a 41-year-old Southern California resident. As Alfredo shared, his family and him were awakened by loud explosions in the front yard of his home, causing a chaos of noise, setting off his home and trucks alarm. The explosions scared his son and stepdaughter who came running into the hallway, crying. Alfredo ran to his alarm panel to turn off his alarm and go outside. His initial thought was that a drunk driver must have crashed into his truck and garage. As he was about to open the front door to his home, his fiancée screamed at him to get away from the door. Alfredo looked at his front door, which is made of textured glass, and noticed about a dozen red laser dots scanning the door.
At this exact moment, his cellphone rang, and when he answered, a female voice stated, “This is the FBI, and we have your home surrounded.” Alfredo was hit with a million questions….What’s going on? Is my family going to be okay? Is a tactical unit about to storm into my home and take my family?
Alfredo gathered his family in his arms and said, “It’s okay, it’s the police. They are good guys.…it will be okay.” Alfredo told the FBI agent on his phone, “I’m coming out with my hands up. Please be careful with my family. I have two kids, ages 12 and 13 and my fiancée and my newborn daughter are in the home.”
Alfredo recalls walking out of his home to be confronted by over dozen FBI SWAT team members, a heavily armored tactical vehicle with a gun mount on top, a drone in the sky and vehicles blocking off his entire street. Alfredo followed the commands to walk towards them and turn around, place his hands behind his head and to not move.
As Alfredo felt the officer grab his arms and pull them behind his back, he heard the distinct sound of clicking as the handcuffs were tightened around his wrists….a sound he knew from placing handcuffs on suspects hundreds of times during the course of his own law enforcement career. Alfredo asked, “What’s going on?” and an officer responded, “We have a search warrant for your home.” Alfredo asked several times to be shown the warrant and was told that when investigators arrived, they would show him.
What happened next, brought pain to Alfredo’s heart and soul and still to this day generates tears. On his son’s 13th birthday, he watched his family get ordered out of their home with guns pointed at them. Alfredo watched his family get ordered to sit on the sidewalk across the street from him in the cold, dark morning hours. Alfredo pleaded with the officer to please let his family back in the home and out of the cold. Alfredo noticed his newborn was still alone in the home and his fiancée would not be allowed in to get her and hold her. Alfredo sat helpless as he watched officers enter his home with his newborn and still no proof of a warrant.
As daylight began to break, Alfredo’s family was escorted into his home and Alfredo was taken to his own backyard through the side gate, still handcuffed, with no shoes and only shorts and a T-shirt. He was ordered to sit in one of his yard chairs and wait for investigators. When Alfredo was finally contacted by FBI investigators, he was told a search warrant was obtained based on California’s “Red Flag” law because of content on his Twitter Social Media account. He was told they wanted to question him about it being potentially violent. Alfredo was shocked. He told them nothing on his social media is violent and he wanted his lawyer present before any questions. The FBI ignored his request and started to interrogate him in his backyard for hours. At the end of the interrogation, the FBI agents finally provided him with a partial search warrant and explained that they would be taking all his firearms and electronics. When all the law enforcement officers finally left, Alfredo and his family were left with a home that was turned half upside down---a home that was supposed to be celebrating his son’s birthday.
Alfredo’s home would be hounded by media over the next few days and as seen all too often in news reports, the media would fill in the blanks and join a national narrative against Patriotic Americans about the events of January 6th, 2021. On Inauguration Day (01/20/2021), the FBI and the Palm Springs Police Department would conduct undercover surveillance of Alfredo’s workplace as he worked as a Gang Officer and Patrol Officer for the Palm Springs Unified School District. That evening, they would arrest Alfredo for his police patrol rifle taken during the search warrant of his home.
As Alfredo was being handcuffed a short distance from the front of his school district, he asked what the bail amount on his arrest was. The FBI agent responded that it was quarter of a million dollars. Alfredo remembers being terrified and shocked when he heard this number; after all, he had arrested hundreds of violent criminals with notorious rap sheets and they had bail set at less than $40,000. $250,000 is the bail for an attempted murder or violent crime!
This was not the end of the nightmare for Alfredo, as when he was put in the back of a police transport wagon, the officer asked, “Which jail do you want to be taken to, Indio or Banning?” Alfredo looked at him and responded, “I have criminals who I have arrested for murders at both jails, so I’m not safe at either one. I guess it doesn’t matter.” When Alfredo arrived at the Larry Smith Correctional Facility, he was ordered to undress and changed into a red jumpsuit for inmates who cannot be placed in the general population for their safety. After undergoing processing, Alfredo was escorted to a solitary confinement cell with no explanation why.
What was unknown to Alfredo, was his family was already seeking methods to bail him out because of the obvious knowledge of danger that would loom every second he was in custody. Alfredo’s family was told by the bail agent, the jail stated Alfredo was not eligible for bail, because a parole hold was placed on him. They were all shocked, Alfredo had never in his life been arrested or charged for a crime, how could a parole hold exist. This was later remedied as an error by the jail and the following day he was able to be bailed out. Alfredo’s mother, an instructional aide for disabled high school children, could not afford bail, and had to use her home as a collateral to gain money for bail.
Alfredo recalls that night sitting in the isolation cell worried about his family and wondering, how after he fought in war for his country and lived a decorated service as a police officer, that it could come to this. He prayed that night for peace for his family and for strength to endure this battle that would challenge to take away his constitutional rights and freedoms based on tweets in support of peace and his country. The following afternoon, he was released on bail and would come home to local news articles defaming his name and law enforcement service.
You see, Alfredo was already in a court battle with the Cathedral City Police Department for a wrongful termination that occurred on 01/9/2021 (Police Officer Appreciation Day). The local news immediately took to derail Alfredo’s career based off incorrect information provided to them by the City of Cathedral City. Alfredo and his attorneys would go on a legal battle which in May of 2020 would have an arbitrator declare every allegation made against Alfredo overturned in a 36-page judgement. The Arbitrator would not only vindicate Alfredo, but identified which officers should have instead been investigated. In a quote from the document, the arbitrator stated Alfredo “...was used as a scapegoat.” In the award letter, the arbitrator ordered Alfredo’s immediate reinstatement and back pay.
The City of Cathedral City disregarded the judgement and now Alfredo and his attorneys are in Superior Court over the matter. Alfredo has remained silent with media during this entire onslaught against his name and career to allow the justice process to take place. Alfredo now breaks his silence to protect his family and himself.
The City of Cathedral City did not want Alfredo to return to service because he repeatedly vocalized to the then-detective sergeant and others that during a homicide investigation, the wrong suspects were arrested. This statement is corroborated by other Cathedral City detectives under oath. The city was later sued by the female in that case, and the city used this case as one of the termination allegations against Alfredo. Despite the fact that Alfredo had argued multiple times through the chain of command that the female and the male were wrongly arrested, and the male wrongly convicted, Alfredo was “scapegoated.” The city sought to destroy his credibility to cover their grave mistake.
What the news didn’t investigate, or report, is that in November of 2017, Alfredo was named Investigator of the Year and received a Chief’s Commendation Award from Police Chief George Crum. In 2016, Alfredo was also awarded Police Officer of the Year and another Chief’s Commendation. In 2014, he received a recognition award from the FBI. In 2011, he earned the Medal of Valor in addition to multiple awards from the United States Congress.
You see, if you were to sit down with Alfredo you would be awestricken by his law enforcement career, which started with a shooting in 2006 on his first day solo as a new police officer. Alfredo responded to a domestic violence disturbance where the suspect opened fire on Alfredo, before later turning the gun on himself. Alfredo was able to save the mother and daughter from a murder suicide. Alfredo would reunite with this mother and daughter in 2018 when they took pictures with him and thanked him for saving them. In 2007, Alfredo would survive another shooting as a suspect wanted for attempted murder would lead him on a wild chase while trying to shoot Alfredo and the CHP Officers who joined him in the pursuit. Alfredo would go on to have hundreds of more stories, but none which impacted him more than when his dear friend and coworker, Officer Jermaine Gibson, was killed during the pursuit of a gang member into Palm Springs. Alfredo and two other officers would attempt to save their friend who was trapped in his burning police car which had crashed into a palm tree. They would be unsuccessful in saving him, bringing about the worst day of their lives. In March 2018, Alfredo would respond to a baby drowning call were he performed CPR on a 2-year-old who was under water for several minutes. This little boy would make an amazing recovery, which the staff at Loma Linda University Medical Center dubbed the “Easter Miracle.” On his own time during Easter, Alfredo went to hospital to visit the child and family and give him a police patch. Alfredo’s Detective Sergeant and Lieutenant would recommend Alfredo for the highest agency award the “Life Saving Medal.” That request that was rejected given Alfredo’s vocalization against the arrest and prosecution of the wrong parties.
Alfredo, a father to five daughters and one son, is being punished for questioning his government and for being a patriot. In court documents pertaining to his arrest obtained by the media, an arrest and search warrant were sought against Alfredo for reasons such as “…he is a former US Marine and fully capable of inflicting lethal violence …” and “…he showed Pre-incident indicators of violence….” This is America and instead of thanking this patriot for his service, it was used against his character. In what you would think is a line out of the movie “Minority Report,” a search warrant was authored and signed because of “Pre-Incident Indicators.” This should strike fear in the heart of every American. The FBI doesn’t need you to commit a crime, they just need to assume you could potentially commit a crime.
The FBI stated in their arrest warrant “...The information obtained in this investigation is a result of an active Joint Terrorism Task Force domestic terrorism case on captioned subject Alfredo Luna…Threats To Inauguration 2021.” It is important to note, Alfredo was not at the capital or even in Washington D.C on January 6, 2021. He was working on Inauguration Day on the other side of the country, in California. Equally alarming is that during Alfredo’s interrogation, he was asked by the FBI which president he voted for and which party he is registered with. According to Alfredo, in the thousands of interviews he has conducted and been a part of as a police officer, he has never asked anyone those questions and they have no business being asked to Americans in America.
As a result of the afore-mentioned incidents as he goes through due process, Alfredo was terminated by the Palm Springs Unified School District and has struggled to support his family and their newborn. His truck was repossessed in March, and the family was just able to retrieve it a few weeks ago. They are behind in every bill as he continues to try to pay his legal fees, bail payments and normal bills. It is uncomfortable for this patriot to seek financial help, but they have no choice at this point. If you feel compelled to help, please donate, if you are unable to donate, please send a message of encouragement to him and his family. The last part of this is a statement from Alfredo himself to all of you.
To my fellow Americans and Patriots throughout the world: Thank you for taking time to hear my story. I will always have my faith and don’t need a badge on my chest to remember my oath; I love our country in all its glory and faults. Tears fill my eyes to find myself in this nightmare, but though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. God wins no matter what happens to me. They may take my freedoms and my belongings, but they will never take away my love for my country and all of you. As I sat in the isolation cell that night, many thoughts crossed my mind and a lot of hurt filled my heart for my family, but I am not the only one suffering. Please pray for all those known and unknown who are still suffering for defending their nation. I know God will take care of me and my family; he always has, and he will again. As I go through this walk, I remember the story of Job in the Bible, and I will keep my faith. Any help would mean a lot to me and my family. Your donation will help provide me quality legal help and help my family survive staying in our home and meet bill demands. God Bless and Semper Fi. Alfredo Luna
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