LOS ANGELES – The family of a slain teen held a press conference outside of Los Angeles Police Department headquarters demanding justice after he was fatally shot on July 13.
On July 13 eighteen-year-old Ricardo “Ricky” Ramirez, Jr., a recent Richmond, California, high school graduate, was tragically shot and killed by LAPD Vice Officer Sergeant Michael Pounds.
“Ricky, my only son, was a good kid, made everybody smile and feel loved. He was at the threshold of his whole life having just graduated and the LAPD shot him causing him to fall through death’s door,” said his grieving father Ricardo Ramirez, Sr. “Hiding behind tinted glass, without any warning, Ricky was killed, his only crime was being young and of color. This has to stop.”
According to the family, Ricky and his friends were riding in a silver Cadillac along the Figueroa Corridor when they noticed they were being “tailgated and aggressively menaced” by a dark sedan, with blacked-out window tinting.
After making several turns, it was apparent that they were being targeted. Unarmed, Ricky and another passenger exited the vehicle and approached the sedan asking, arms extended, palms up, why they were being followed. As Ricky approached the car, a single shot was fired into his chest from behind the tinted driver’s window. The other occupant ran back to the car, which drove away, the occupants in fear for their lives, unaware that an LAPD officer fired the shot.
The family retained the Dolan Law Firm which filed claims against the City on behalf of the Ramirez family, a precursor to a lawsuit, as well as calling for the officer to be charged with his death.
“A 2023 study reported that over 1,020 people in LA County have been killed by police since 2020. The report revealed that almost all the dead were men, nearly 80% were Black or Latino and nearly 92% were shot to death,” said lead attorney Christopher Dolan. “Ricky, a Latino man, was shot and killed by a senior officer, concealed behind tinted windows in an unmarked car. Sargent Pounds was aggressively tailgating, being provocative, and never, in any way, identified himself as a cop.”
“He didn’t turn on his blue and red strobes, use the P.A. system, issue any command to stop, nor warn he was going to shoot. Instead, Pounds carefully took aim and fired a lethal shot through the tinted driver’s side window, into the center of Ricky’s chest. Ricky never knew that he was approaching an officer, never made any threats or contact with the vehicle and was shot for asking why the car was harassing them. He was murdered without justification and in violation of police policy designed to save lives. Sargent Pounds knew the law and he chose to break it, sending Ricky to his death. The police must be held accountable in order for these killings to stop. The DA and Attorney General should file murder charges.”
The Los Angeles Police Department reported the shooting occurred at about 10:25 p.m. on July 13 in the 400 block of 66th Street, west of Flower Street.
A vice sergeant from the department’s 77th Street station was on duty in plain clothes and in an unmarked police vehicle when the shooting occurred, according to police.
A police officer was injured when his vehicle crashed near the northbound Harbor (110) Freeway at the 51st Street exit earlier in the chase. That officer was rushed to hospital, where he was listed in stable condition.
A vehicle pursuit occurred after the shooting, police said. The pursuit extended to multiple freeways, ending in the Ontario area, NBC4 reported.
Three people inside the suspect vehicle were detained, police said.
The department has not issued any statements on why the officer was tailing the vehicle Ramirez was in.
