The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department released body-camera footage Thursday that shows a deputy shooting a 23-year-old man just after he pulled a knife from his jacket pocket during a confrontation in La Quinta in April.
The man survived.
Deputies were dispatched to the 44-000 block of Vista Dunes Lane at 11:51 p.m. April 3 in response to a report of an assault with a deadly weapon. Upon their arrival, Sheriff Chad Bianco said in the video, they located a man armed with a knife.
In the video, which shows about 10 seconds of body-cam footage, the man is approaching the deputy’s vehicle with a bicycle at his side.
“Stay right there! Put the bike down,” the deputy says in the video, as the man says something about his bike and points toward two other people visible several yards away. The man then sets his bike down.
The deputy then yells: “Get on the ground! Get on the ground!” The man, who is a few feet from the deputy, then turns and pulls a knife from his pocket, at which point the deputy fires several shots at him.
The man was identified in the video as Ramiro Tapia Gonzales, a 23-year-old resident of La Quinta. Bianco said he was carrying an eight-inch knife with a black handle.
Gonzales was transported to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, and no other people were injured. The deputy was placed on administrative leave, according to department policy, as the shooting is investigated by the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office.
Bianco said the shooting remains under investigation, with the district attorney’s office and the sheriff department’s Force Investigations Detail partnering to review the incident.
Tom Coulter covers the cities of Palm Desert, La Quinta, Rancho Mirage and Indian Wells. Reach him at [email protected].
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Video shows man pull knife before police shooting in La Quinta
Source Agencies
