Couple presses Gilbert for $750,000

A Phoenix couple whose home was burned down during a December police raid is demanding Gilbert pay them $750,000.

A notice of claim — the initial step in suing a municipality — asks Gilbert to hand over the money in the next 60 days for the home, as well as the couple’s mental anguish and expenses, according to the paperwork filed Friday.

Salvador Celaya, 73, and his wife, Carlota, 69, lost everything in the fire at 6802 S. Eighth St., where they lived for 40 years, said their Phoenix attorney, Daniel Ortega.

Gilbert and Scottsdale police went to the home at 9:30 p.m. Dec. 20 looking for stolen property and 24-year-old Erasmo Ruiz Villarreal, who was wanted for a Gilbert carjacking and a Scottsdale home invasion.

Police state they announced their presence and warned that they were there to serve a warrant. After they received no response, they pried open a door and threw a diversionary canister through a window.

The canister, which emits a bright light and intense sound to act as a distraction for officers, landed on a bed and ignited a blaze that spread throughout the home.

Police have said they were unable to extinguish the fire because Salvador Celaya began shooting at them.

The claim faults Gilbert police for throwing the canister through the window without visually inspecting where it would land.

The family contends Salvador Celaya, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, didn’t hear police announce they were outside and thought an intruder was breaking into his home. He fired his .22-caliber handgun as a warning, said his son, Ed Celaya.

They remain adamant that they don’t know Villarreal.

However, police have said it was solid information that lead them to the home.

Gilbert Town Manager George Pettit and police spokesman Lt. Eric Shuhandler declined to comment on the claim Friday, stating that the police department is still completing its internal investigation.

Police said the report is expected to be available in the next several weeks.

The notice of claim is based on reports from the Phoenix and Scottsdale police departments and the Phoenix Fire Department.

The Phoenix Fire Department ruled that the diversionary canister was the cause of the fire.

The blaze gutted the Celayas’ home, where Salvador and Carlota lived with their daughter, Sonia Celaya, 44, and 26-year-old grandson, Ronnie Vance.

The couple, who didn’t have homeowners insurance, now live in a south Phoenix home their sons have been renovating for them.

Ed Celaya, a civil attorney, said his parents have been traumatized and fear police.

Police reports show that officers had several factors that led them to the Eighth Street home. A license plate on a pickup truck used in a Dec. 17 Scottsdale home invasion was registered to Sonia Celaya. Police found a Cadillac Escalade stolen during the home invasion at 11th Street and Vineyard Road, blocks away from the Celaya residence. And officers had been tracking the cell phone activity of Villarreal and had reason to believe he was in that area.

While Sonia Celaya’s Chevrolet Silverado wasn’t at the home when police served the search warrant, officers were eventually able to examine it.

According to Scottsdale police spokesman Sgt. Mark Clark, Villarreal’s DNA was found on the truck’s steering wheel. Sonia Celaya has denied knowing him.

Ed Celaya said police should have tried to communicate with the family before breaking down the front door.

“I think going to the house might be valid,” he said. “But going to the house with a SWAT team is not valid. Going and destroying the house is not valid.”

According to a Phoenix police report, Salvador Celaya admitted to firing his gun.

“But I didn’t know they were the police. Had I known, I would have opened the door for them,” he said in the report.