Investigators release new details in deadly LAPD shooting before cross-county pursuit

Investigators from the Los Angeles Police Department released new details of the events that led up to an officer killing an unarmed man along the Figueroa Corridor over the weekend. 

The deadly shooting happened on July 13 at about 10:25 p.m. when plain clothes Vice officers patrolled through the area during a prostitution enforcement detail. LAPD investigators said officers saw the occupants of a silver Cadillac wearing ski maks in a possible dispute with another driver. 

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 driver as it went east on the 400 block of 66th Street.  

The Cadillac then stopped across both lanes of traffic on 66th Street, approaching Flower Street. Two men got out of the car and approached both sides of the sergeant's vehicle, which stopped on the road. The sergeant opened fire when one of the men, Ricardo Ramirez, approached the driver's side of the vehicle. 

Ramirez dropped to the ground while the other man ran back to the car. LAPD started to chase the Cadillac before handing off the pursuit to the California Highway Patrol. 

It eventually ended on the I-15 Freeway in San Bernardino County. Officers arrested the driver, 26-year-old Israel Dezama, for felony evading. The two other occupants were questioned and released. 

The Los Angeles Fire Department took Ramirez to the hospital, where he later died. No one else was wounded. 

Detectives did not find any firearms or other weapons. 

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 pursuant to AB 1506, which requires his office to investigate any police shooting resulting in the death of an unarmed civilian.