By Cristóbal Reyes
Orlando Sentinel
ORLANDO, Fla. — Body camera video released by the Orange County Sheriff’s Office on Monday showed the moments leading to a Sept. 24 shooting by deputies that killed a 45-year-old man authorities said had pointed a gun at his roommate while standing in the street near his home in Oak Ridge.
That night around 12:47 a.m., deputies arrived at the 5500 block of Suncreek Court and tried to get Jorge Ramirez-Rivera to surrender peacefully. Hours earlier, there were reports of him firing a gun in the backyard of the home.
Deputies couldn’t contact him at that time, but later spoke to him to 40 minutes to try getting him to surrender peacefully. Body camera video shows he insisted on leaving the property with his gun in hand, but a deputy who appeared to speak with him over the phone warned that he could get shot.
“Leave the gun inside and nothing will happen,” the deputy said in a video posted to the Sheriff’s Office’s YouTube channel. “Don’t come out with the gun, because they’re going to think you’re threatening them.”
“I’m going to come out with the gun,” Ramirez-Rivera appears to reply.
The video put out by the agency then cuts to another video where a group of deputies enter the property through a gate to the backyard, finding Ramirez-Rivera as he pointed the gun to his head. Deputies are then seen in the video firing bean bag rounds and trying to stun Ramirez-Rivera with Tasers before he fired at least three shots at the deputies, who shot back, killing him.
“We only want to talk to you,” a deputy is heard saying in Spanish, moments before the fatal encounter. No deputies were injured.
Monday’s release of the video comes about two weeks after it happened, as part of the Sheriff’s Office’s policy on releasing footage of shootings by deputies within a month after they take place.
Four deputies 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 State Attorney’s Office. From there, the Sheriff’s Office will conduct an internal investigation.
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