Jose Ruiz, the Chino man who videotaped the incident, said he is also disturbed by what he saw Sunday night. He ran outside his home with a video camera with the intent of filming the aftermath of a car crash late Sunday. What unfolded instead is something he says has kept him awake and uneasy.
"I've never seen that in my life. I haven't slept in more than two days. My daughter hasn't gone to school in two days. I haven't gone to work in two days," he said. Ruiz played a copy of the video tape to reporters at his Chino home Tuesday.
The tape, which is dark and only shows a silhouette of the deputy and Carrion on the ground, does capture some dialogue between Carrion and the deputy. "He said, 'I'm in the military. Believe me, I don't have a gun,' " Ruiz recalled him saying. The deputy, with his gun drawn, said, "All right, get up, get up."
As the man began to rise with his back facing the deputy, the deputy fired three shots. The man fell back to the ground and began screaming in pain. The deputy then called on his radio, "Shots fired, shots fired."
Ruiz said he immediately turned a tape over to the Sheriff's Department after the incident, but he has retained an attorney because of incidents that have happened since then. Luis Carrillo, a South Pasadena attorney, said he's helping Ruiz to make sure his rights are not violated. Carrillo said over a 12-hour period after the video tape was handed over to deputies, Ruiz was pulled over three times by officers. "His whole vehicle gets searched. It was totally unnecessary," Carrillo said. Staff writer Wendy Leung contributed to this story.
It looks like the dept knows this was a bad shoot.