Sheriff of Los Angeles County Alex Villanueva experiences grave concern about an incident from March where an Angelino showed suicidal behavior that intentionally provoked deputies to fire at him. The concern follows the public release of deputy body camera footage.
David Ordaz Jr died of gunshot injuries sustained in the said incident after the officers involved in it coordinated the utilization of stun bags. As per Villanueva, one of those deputies is relieved of his duties and his powers as a peace officer are suspended, until the result of the investigation comes. As of writing this, there is an ongoing investigation into the incident.
The recent telephonic call between Ordaz’s sister and a dispatcher demonstrates that the former was accompanying him in a car. The audio of that call reveals that he was under the influence of meth and that he intended to get shot to death by US law enforcement. It also shows that Angelino had possessed a knife at the time. Ordaz’s sister told the dispatcher that suicidal thoughts have kept him awake all night and that his family had been attempting to aid him in tackling it. Law enforcement describes this sort of situation as ‘suicide by cop’.
The footage shows the officers coming to the scene and demanding Ordaz to exit the car. The man from Los Angeles exited it with a knife, refused to drop the weapon and yelled at the officers to fire at him. Then, the officers told him that they were not there to shoot the man as they waited for more deputies to hit the spot with a team of mental health evaluation professionals.
Ordaz eventually started to approach the officers as they fired stun bag shots at the man. After Ordaz retreated briefly, he responded to the shots by approaching the officers fast, which made the latter fire lethal shots at him.
Los Angeles County Fire Department staff transported him to a hospital in LA, and he died there. With the investigation continuing, Villanueva stated that LAC’s Justice System Integrity Division would review how legal the shooting is. The Los Angeles FBI Office will look at the results of the investigation as well.