Night Raid

From Oscar and Emmy Award winning documentarian, Kary Antholis, Night Raid is a story about the tragic death of a Pomona SWAT officer … and the story of the man accused of killing him.

Ask any public defender in the LA criminal courts to name the most complicated and heart-wrenching case in the past decade and almost everyone will tell you it’s The People vs. David Martinez. Ask the prosecutors and they’ll admit the case is tragic. But complicated? No. They say it’s murder plain and simple.

There is no dispute that Officer Shaun Diamond was a man of good character whose death is horrific … or that David Martinez was affiliated with a motorcycle club that had conflicts with law enforcement. But Night Raid avoids a rush to judgment and considers all aspects of a very murky case. And in the process explores our own prejudices and preconceptions about cause and effect, guilt and innocence … even punishment and redemption. 

There are no videos of the raid and David Martinez isn’t an ACLU poster boy. He’s a family man with vices that may have contributed to the shotgun blast that killed Diamond on the night of October 28, 2014. In the eight episodes of Night Raid, we unravel the compelling story of The People vs. David Martinez - not just the events of David’s two trials but the reasons for the SWAT raid and the planning behind it, the relationship between David and the Mongols Motorcycle Club, and how the intertwined narratives of this story reflect larger issues in our judicial system. The series takes an intimate look at Diamond’s death through unprecedented access to search warrant materials and recordings of detective interviews with David’s family and other Pomona SWAT officers.

Executive Producer — Kary Antholis

Host, Producer, Writer — Molly Miller

Night Raid is a production of Crime Story Media and eOne Entertainment. The podcast debuts on LAist 89.3 on Saturday May 6 at 2pm with a rebroadcast on Sunday May 7 at 7pm. Each episode of the eight part Night Raid special series will air Saturday’s at 2pm and rebroadcast Sunday at 7pm. The first episode of the podcast will be released on all podcast players after the second LAist broadcast on May 7, with new episodes airing each Sunday thereafter.

The eight episode Night Raid series will conclude its run on the weekend of June 24.

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