Bodycam video shows Orange County deputies fatally shoot man when he pulled out a gun, fired at them
By: Body camera video released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Monday showed the moments leading up to a Sept. 24 officer-involved shooting that killed a 45-year-old man. Authorities said he pointed a gun at his roommate while standing on the street near his home in Eikenrug.
That night, around 12:47 a.m., officers arrived at the 5500 block of Suncreek Court and attempted to get Jorge Ramirez-Rivera to surrender peacefully. Hours earlier, there were reports that he had fired a gun in the backyard of the home.
Officers were unable to contact him at the time, but later spoke to him for 40 minutes to try to get him to surrender peacefully. Body camera footage shows he insisted on leaving the property with his gun in hand, but a deputy who appeared to speak to him over the phone warned he could be shot.
“Leave the gun in and nothing will happen,” the deputy said in a video on the Sheriff’s Office YouTube channel. “Don’t come out with the gun because they’ll think you’re threatening them.”
“I’m going to come out with the gun,” Ramirez-Rivera appears to respond.
The video broadcast by the department then cuts to another video showing a group of officers entering the property through a gate to the backyard and finding Ramirez-Rivera pointing the gun at his head. The video then shows officers firing beanbag rounds and trying to stun Ramirez-Rivera with Tasers before he fired at least three shots at the officers, who returned fire, killing him.
“We just want to talk to you,” a deputy is heard saying in Spanish, just before the fatal encounter. No deputies were injured.
Monday’s release of the video comes about two weeks after it occurred, as part of the Sheriff’s policy of releasing footage of officer-involved shootings within a month of them occurring.
Four officers involved in the shooting are on administrative leave while the shooting is investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which will then send its report to the Attorney General’s Office. From there, the Sheriff’s Office will conduct an internal investigation.