Did Anaheim Cops really have to shoot Rickey Rodrigues?


Rickey Rodrigues? That was a new name to us too, when the very indiscriminate app NewsBreak promoted a story from the very unreliable source “Hoodline.Com” trumpeting “OCDA Releases Report on Fatal Anaheim Police Shooting of Rickey Rodrigues.” That really threw us for a loop – those of us who THOUGHT we’d been keeping track of all the fatal shootings by Anaheim Police.

Turns out, it was NOT fatal, as anyone would know who bothered to glance at the DA report the story linked to. 23-year-old Rickey was shot in the gut, and recovered. Also, this happened in March of 2019, in an alley behind the Good Samaritan Medical Clinic at Harbor and North. Which brings up the question, how did it take nearly five years for DA Spitzer to produce a report about the shooting?

It was OC Sheriffs who, serving eviction warrants one morning, got flagged down by a lady worried about two guys, stationed in a white SUV (which turned out to be allegedly stolen) trying to break into vehicles in the Clinic parking lot. Sheriffs called APD for backup, and one of the guys, after telling Sheriffs he was a “Federal Agent” and to back off, slipped away never to be heard from again. (Clever fast-talker, or actually a snitch?)

And the lawmen ended up in a slow pursuit of an uncooperative Rickey who wouldn’t surrender or show his hands, and eventually slipped into a backyard, where he allegedly pulled out a “gun,” pointed it at the cops, and had to be shot.

The gun turned out to be another non-lethal BB gun, a “Crossman PFM16 CO2 BB pistol” (right.) But of course it looks like a real gun from a distance, just like all the other BB guns that have gotten people shot FATALLY by cops in Anaheim over the decade. Rickey is luckey he didn’t end up in that list, with Abby Lopez, Bernie Villegas, Peter Muntean, and Eliuth Penaloza-Nava.

But, given all the bodycam footage we’re shown, there are a lot of things we DON’T SEE, and just have to take law enforcement’s word for (just like Abby Lopez allegedly raising HER BB gun at the police much more recently):

  • Most importantly, we don’t see Rickey pointing his gun at the cops as they say he did; the image we’re shown from the bodycams is way too small to make out;
  • We don’t even see Rickey in possession of the BB gun, just the still life above;
  • A lady walks nonchalantly through the video, crossing the alley, seemingly unperturbed, but the report says Rickey pointed his gun at her too before he ducked into the back yard.

Regarding the whole gun thing, there are two things we notice reading the report:

1) Rickey was initially charged with five crimes including “misdemeanor Brandishing of an Imitation Firearm,” but that charge was dropped, along with all others except “felony Resisting and Deterring an Executive Officer.” Simply part of the legal negotiations, or was it unprovable in court that he had, and brandished, that “gun?”

2) Under “evidence” analysis, the Crime Lab analyzed both officers’ guns for some damn reason but say nothing about any fingerprints or DNA on the BB gun. Things that just make you go “hmmm.”

Like I said, Rickey is luckey to be alive. We assume that the officers who fired are glad they didn’t kill somebody, but unfortunately from the point of view of APD policy (dictated by Lexipol), if you’re gonna shoot, you’re supposed to shoot to kill – aiming for “center mass.” We civilians are always “Can’t they just shoot to wound someone?” and we’re always scolded, “No, if you shoot you shoot to kill. You NEUTRALIZE the THREAT.” The cynical explanation for that policy is that it’s cheaper to deal with a death than the responsibility for someone who lives crippled for decades longer.

Couple other little ancillary observations

These DA incident reports used to be signed by Brahim Baytieh, till he had a falling out with Spitzer in 2020 and was fired, and then immediately elected Judge! Funny, it’s become common wisdom now that Spitzer fired his “ethical north star” because Todd suddenly figured out after four years that Baytieh was neck-deep in Rackauckas’ Snitch Scandal that Todd had run against, but it sure seemed like it was right in the middle of Todd’s re-election, AND right after Baytieh had blown the whistle on Todd’s borderline-racist musings about sentencing a black man who dated white women. ‘Member that?? History being re-written right before our eyes!

Well, who signs those reports now? Hey, we know that name too – it’s Brett Brian, Rackauckas’ over-zealous prosecutor who managed to give life + 25 years in Pelican Bay to 16-year-old Jesus Aguirre for toting a shotgun loaded with birdshot for a friend. It took a Village of Advocates to make Brian back off a little after a few years, and then Governor Brown commuted Jesus’ sentence. In case you’re wondering, Jesus is doing fine now, has graduated college and is working as a computer programmer. (OJ Blog’s Institutional Memory in action!)

ALSO…

Is Hoodline.com Artificial Intelligence?

And Why is NewsBreak promoting them?

I mean look at this Hoodline.com story on the “fatal” shooting of Rickey – apart from the glaring “fatal” gaffe, have you ever seen a piece both so information-free AND personality-free? These Hoodline pieces are all allegedly written by young females around the state with inspiring bios, but I’m betting these ladies don’t even exist.

You want to see something REALLY funny? Check out this piece by “Gabriela Martinez” on Todd’s report on the custodial death of Larry Esquivel Martinez – for this one they cranked up the algorithms on overblown cliches and random synonyms, to resemble a thesaurus-crazed college student, and you still learn ABSOLUTELY NOTHING from the long story.

As for NewsBreak, I didn’t hate them when they used to pick OUR stories at random and get us a few thousand extra readers, but now that they’ve apparently dropped us like a hot potato, it can be said: NewsBreak is Bottom-Feeders.

But Back to Rickey Rodrigues:

  • It’s regrettable, suspicion-engendering, and probably sometimes unavoidable, that we are still asked so often, even with the prevalence of bodycam footage, to believe law enforcement assertions we can’t verify with our own eyes.
  • It’s a good question, and PRA-worthy, how much money Anaheim taxpayers had to pay Rickey Rodrigues for getting shot in the gut, especially as he was only charged with resisting arrest.
  • The Orange Juice Blog hopes that Rickey has found better things to do with his LUCKEY life than breaking into cars.

Here’s the OCDA video:

NOTE: This story was NOT produced by Artificial Intelligence, and NewsBreak will ignore it.

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.