Family files claim against Los Angeles after undercover officer allegedly kills 18-year-old son
The family of 18-year-old Ricardo "Ricky" Ramirez Jr. stood in front of the headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department to demand answers after an undercover officer allegedly killed the unarmed recent high school graduate.
"I'll never get my son back, " Renee Villalobos said. "I want to know why this police officer is not handcuffed and charged for the murder of my son."
The deadly shooting happened on July 13 while Ramirez, a Bay Area native, was on vacation in Southern California. The 18-year-old traveled to LA with his friends to celebrate their high school graduation.
"He was just 18 years old," father Ricardo Ramirez Sr. said. "His journey was just beginning, and that was taken away from us ... People are portraying him as a bad kid. He was a good kid."
The group of young men were driving their silver Cadillac around the Figueroa Corridor at the same time, plain clothes Vice officers were conducting a prostitution enforcement operation in the area, according to the LAPD.
Investigators claimed Ramirez and his friends were wearing ski masks and got into a possible dispute with another driver.
"I've talked to everybody in that car; there wasn't a ski mask on anybody," attorney Christopher Dolan said. "There wasn't a ski mask at any point in those cars."
After the officers relayed that information to other units in the area, a Vice sergeant driving by himself in an unmarked car spotted the Cadillac and tailed the group as it went east on the 400 block of 66th Street, according to LAPD.
The Cadillac then stopped across both lanes of traffic on 66th Street, approaching Flower Street. Ricky and one of his friends exited the car and approached the sergeant's vehicle from both sides. Dolan said the unmarked car had tinted windows.
According to Dolan, the sergeant opened fire from inside the car, behind the tinted windows, while Ramirez asked, "Why are you following us?"
Initially, the LAPD said Ramirez was armed. Ramirez's family said he did not have a weapon. Officers did not find a firearm or weapon at the scene.
"Ricky was unarmed. The officer was safely in his vehicle, and he shot from the vehicle into a boy with no weapon in his hands," Dolan said. "If you or I shot from inside of a car into the chest of somebody, we'd be behind bars."
The Los Angeles Fire Department took Ramirez to the hospital, where he later died.
After the shooting, Ramirez's friend ran back to the car before the group sped away. LAPD started to chase the friends before handing off the pursuit to the California Highway Patrol.
Officers chased them into San Bernardino County before finally getting the three men into custody. Officers arrested the driver, 26-year-old Israel Dezama, for felony evading. The two other occupants were questioned and released.
"They were afraid that they'd all get shot," Dolan said.
The California Department of Justice joined the LAPD's Force Investigation Division to look into the shooting. Attorney General Rob Bonta said his office will conduct an independent review under AB 1506, which requires his office to investigate any police shooting resulting in the death of an unarmed civilian.
"I want justice, and I will not stop until I get it," Villalobos said.