Tracy Police release further details on officer-involved shooting

Police note that the home security video time stamp indicates the initial incident happened at 1:39 p.m. Friday. Police got the 9-1-1 call at 1:47 p.m. and Officer Carlos Ramirez, the first officer to the scene, arrived at 1:56 p.m.

Once Ramirez arrived at the southeast corner of Foxtail Way and Mosswood Court events unfolded quickly, as shown by time stamps included on the body camera video. It takes the officer 15 seconds to exit his patrol car once he’s at the scene. He then is immediately approached by a young man, who points to the right and says “my brother ….”

At that point another young man rides up from the street on a bicycle, holding a knife in his left hand, gets off of the bike and drops it at the side of the street. Multiple people are talking at the same time as the young man transfers the knife to his right hand and moves toward the officer.

Ramirez tells him to “put down the knife,” and backs away until he is behind the patrol car, repeating the command four more times. Ramirez fires two shots in rapid succession when the young man steps off of the sidewalk, about a car-length away, and the teen then turns around, drops the knife and lowers himself to the sidewalk, screaming in pain and bleeding from wounds to his arm and abdomen.

The time stamp on the video shows that 11 seconds elapsed from the time Ramirez exited his car to the time he fired the shots.

Tracy Police Lt. Mario Ysit said there will be four different investigations. The first investigation will be based on the original call, where a neighbor called 9-1-1 to report a possible assault. The Tracy Police Department’s professional standards and training division will look into the actions of the responding officers, including Ramirez’s use of deadly force. Police will also investigate their potential exposure to civil liability. A fourth investigation will be conducted by the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s office.

The original call was dispatched as a “suspicious incident,” and Tracy Police Capt. Octavio Lopez said it will be investigated as an assault.

Police received one 9-1-1 call from a man who said he lives on Silvertail Place, the next cross-street to the east along Foxtail Way, and reported “a gentleman chasing somebody with a big ol’ knife.” The caller was calm, and told the dispatcher that they ran around the corner but he could still hear them screaming.

Another neighbor’s security camera shows the scene in the street on Mosswood Court with one male who appears to have a knife chasing another, who looks like he’s trying to talk to the one with the knife, as two younger children follow close by. The one with the knife then knocks down a woman, hits another woman and appears to be lunging at and grappling with the other man.

A police evidence photo shows that officers recovered a 13-inch kitchen knife with an 8-inch blade.

The injured teen, who police confirmed is a 17-year-old boy, is considered the suspect in this case, but he has not been arrested. Police noted that the teen’s condition appears to have improved since Friday, based on information they have been able to get from the hospital.

“We’ve been in direct consultation with the District Attorney’s office, and at this time our primary focus is the medical care of the suspect,” Lopez said. “It is clear to us that at this point we will likely make a recommendation of charges of assault with a deadly weapon on multiple counts as we continue to review evidence and put this investigation together.”

Lopez said that there have been no previous incidents reported from that house or involving the people at the house. He added that nobody else appeared to be injured, and police spoke with the brother who first approached Ramirez as part of the investigation.

Millington noted that the family recently moved to Tracy from Afghanistan, but police have not been able to talk any other family members even though the department has tried to make contact.

“We spent the entire day meeting with the Muslim community at different times, different members to have discussions about this incident,” Millington said. “Force, especially deadly force is never a pretty sight, but we wanted to make sure that the information that was provided was accurate and coming from a proper source.”

He added that the department is mindful of cultural issues as police communicate with people who have recently arrived in the community from another country.

“We talked about future training opportunities, future opportunities for cultural awareness where we can share as a police department our perspective on law enforcement and policing and also learn the cultural differences that the community has to offer.”

Ysit added that the department has been in contact with Tracy Islamic Center, Afghan American Association, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations. The latter is a Washington D.C. group with an office in Sacramento, and it sent out a statement following the incident calling for release of the body camera footage and fully transparent and independent investigation.

Police will also investigate the conduct of responding officers, with Ramirez now on leave during the investigation. Millington noted that Ramirez is a 28-year veteran of the department with no disciplinary issues on his record.

Another video that has appeared online shows that in the immediate aftermath of the shooting a woman is kneeling by the injured young man’s side, but it doesn’t look like anyone is giving him first aid.

Millington said that other officers at the scene did offer first aid as soon as they were able, within about 4 minutes of the shooting, including a tourniquet for a wound on the teen’s right arm (3:17) and direct pressure to the abdominal wound (4:02). An ambulance arrived in just under 6 minutes after the shooting and was on its way to the hospital in less than 9½ minutes.

He added that because the incident happened so fast the officer had no time to consider less-lethal options, like deploying a taser.

“The initial officer who arrives on the scene is faced with a challenge, and didn’t have time to react to consider a taser,” Millington said. “Also, part of our tactics when you deploy a taser is you also partner with lethal cover. It’s an electronic system. It’s mechanical. It’s prone to fail, or miss, or if the subject is intoxicated or wearing thick clothing it’s ineffective.”

He added that Tracy Police often will deploy the less lethal options.

“We encounter these events on a daily basis, if not a couple times a week, and our track record in dealing with these incidents is stellar. Using de-escalation, using less-lethal shotguns, using tasers. We’ve been able to de-escalate more times than not.”

“I would say in this instance Officer Ramirez, under the stress and the chaos of the scene did about as good a job as he could have.”