All language subtitles for Killing County - S01E02 (2023) WEB.eng

Officers say
a standard traffic stop

quickly escalated to a shootout.

Both suspects died on-scene.

I was very angry at the fact

that they were constantly
calling my son a suspect.

It didn't sit well with me.

BPD says Harger began shooting
at the officers

and the officers fired back,
killing both Ramirez and Harger.

I knew that there was
something else going on,

than just what they were saying.

The Ramirez family
was searching for answers

when they discovered
mysterious text messages

between Jorge Jr. and an unknown number.

Soon as I logged in,
I went to the very first text.

We were so stunned and surprised
that we found this.

There was a conversation
about where they were,

where they were going,
after the final moments.

So, as I read more,
I was like, "Holy shit.

He was working with the cops."

Just felt like I just found

all my brother's innocence right here.

He wasn't a suspect.

I had to be active
in finding out the real truth.

Who holds these people accountable?

And when?

It just never happens.

Guess what. They met their match.

For three weeks after his death,

Jorge Ramirez was portrayed in the media

as a suspect who could've been working

with dangerous and wanted felon
Justin Harger,

a story the police didn't correct.

But that version of the story
never sat right

with the Ramirez family.

And it turned out there were others

with their suspicions as well.

Kiyoshi Tomono knocks
on my dad's door.

The Bakersfield Police Department says...

Kiyoshi was one of our
prime time news anchors.

He did big stories.

So, if Kiyoshi came to your house,
this is the real deal.

And he said that my brother
was working as a police informant.

I did not sleep that night.

And I get a call from my sister.

She's like, "Turn on the news, right now!"

And I was like, "Why?"

She's like, "Just turn it on!"

Bakersfield Police
Chief Greg Williamson...

I turn it on
and it's our chief of police.

Was Jorge Ramirez Jr. a police informant

and was he acting in any capacity

for the department that early morning?

Mr. Ramirez did contact an officer

of the Bakersfield Police Department

and provide information as to

Mr. Harger's whereabouts

and where he would be on that evening.

Kiyoshi circled back
and asked a follow-up,

as any good journalist would do, and say,

"I just want to confirm that
he was in fact, an informant."

Was he working
in the capacity of an informant,

leading officers
to the Four Points Sheraton

that night, to Harger?

He was. We had several
correspondence with him.

They then rallied to make a plan

and set up around the
Four Points Sheraton.

Ultimately, getting that
confirmation from Williamson

changed everything.

It wasn't until that interview

that we learned that Ramirez
was an informant

and working with police.

Jorge's family
had been in the dark,

searching for answers they couldn't get

from the Bakersfield Police Department,

answers they felt the police had.

Look at Mama.

Say, "Hi!" Say, "Merry Christmas!"

I had never heard of another case

where a informant was injured or killed

the way it happened to him.

How did this unfold?

If Ramirez was working
with law enforcement

to lead them to their suspect,
a known violent offender,

how did Ramirez end up dead?

My son, prior to his death,

he started to kind of get
sentimental and started crying.

I said, "What's wrong, son?"

He goes, "Hey, Dad, you know,
I got to tell you something."

He says, "I done some stupid stuff."

I said, "What are you talking about, son?"

He goes, "Yes, Dad.

If something happens to me,

you got to remember this, Dad,

it wasn't my choice."

Bakersfield has long been known
as a town that supports its police.

Detective Damacio Diaz arrived
as an outsider

from nearby McFarland,
a smaller, more rural, town.

I was the first one in our
neighborhood, in our family,

in our church,
that became a police officer.

When I put on the uniform,
there was a lot of pride.

Diaz was determined
to make his mark on the force.

But it wasn't always
by following the typical path.

I wanted to be the kind of cop
that was in the mix.

I didn't want to be the kind
of cop that was writing tickets

or going to a report call.

Most police officers
will catch the bad guy

with just doing police work.

But there are some criminals
that are not going to be caught

or they're not going to be prosecuted

because there's just not enough evidence.

I didn't notice when I was
crossing the line.

So, by the time I went
to a narcotics unit...

it was very clear
what I was willing to do.

Things like go undercover
and buy drugs and sell drugs.

For me, my life changed

when I began to to live that lifestyle

in these dark areas, these dark corners.

Young police officers can be
pretty impressionable.

What is important is how do agencies

put checks and balances in place

to ensure that people
are not going down a bad path?

I believed,
with all my heart, that,

so long as the end result was

a bad guy going to prison
for a long, long time,

it didn't matter how he got there.

I had always been the kind of guy
who was never afraid

to take those steps.

As Damacio Diaz
and his partner, Patrick Mara,

rose up the ranks
of the Bakersfield Police Department,

they quietly kept their methods
under wraps.

I can tell you that there are
many, many police officers

that I was friends with, that knew me,

that didn't know how far
I had crossed the line

because we didn't discuss those things.

They were not part of that
small, small group

and Patrick Mara and I were.

Me and Pat Mara were great friends.

We were very close.

Working with informants was one
of our primary duties.

There are some strict guidelines
that are expected to be followed

and we are trained on how to

go about signing somebody up
to be an informant.

But there are rules and policies

and then there's doing things
that most cops,

most police officers in America,
have no idea takes place.

For years,
Diaz and Mara worked undercover

and under the radar.

And then, suddenly,

Damacio Diaz found himself
in the spotlight.

When the McFarland, USA
movie came out

and it was an instant success,

of course, everybody
in Kern County and Bakersfield

loved the movie
because it put us on the map.

Diaz.

Diaz. Diaz.

I could never imagine that anyone

would be interested
in our story in McFarland.

-Coach.
-It's not going to matter,

-unless--
-Coach.

It's a story
about a hard-working family

that comes from nothing,
that have great values.

Hey, Damacio.

Look, you wouldn't understand.

It's about Damacio Diaz

and his family of farmworkers

and how he and his brothers
became champion runners.

He really became
like an overnight celebrity.

The local officer became this movie star.

He attended the premiere
of McFarland, USA.

I can distinctly remember
the shot of him on the red carpet,

smiling ear-to-ear.

You know, this is just way
beyond our dreams,

but we are enjoying it.

We're enjoying the show.

During that time,
I had a lot of arrogance about me.

Did it change me? Yes, it did.

Was it for the better?

I would say no.

I allowed myself to get caught up

in all of that Hollywood limelight.

And, soon, Diaz
and the Bakersfield Police Department

found the spotlight

a difficult place to be.

How do you do, friends?

Welcome to...

I think Bakersfield
is most well-known

for the Bakersfield sound,

which is essentially like
a subgenre of country music.

One of the most popular songs,
of course, with Buck Owens,

is "Streets of Bakersfield."

Bakersfield is like
so many other towns

across the American West--

migrants and outsiders vying

to stake their claim and make a home.

Bakersfield was a destination

for migrants during the Great Depression

that were coming out from places
like Oklahoma

in the 1930s, especially.

Never had to lose everything
I had in life.

The Joads, in The Grapes of Wrath,

were portrayed as struggling and poor

and they'd lost their land
and they were pulled

into California
in search of new opportunities.

The diversity that we see
in Bakersfield today

is really just an outcrop

of the historical diversity
that we've always had here.

Some of my ancestors
came straight out of Oklahoma

to do some of the different
things in agriculture.

We had Basque families that raised sheep.

We had Italian families
that migrated here years ago.

But there are also some pieces that
are more sordid and more shameful

and we don't always talk about those,
but they have been here.

So, one of the things that you always get,

with any kind of diversity--

often, there are social tensions.

How do I want to say this?

There are definitely areas of town

that are known historically
for being areas where...

mostly one race lived there.

Oildale?

Pretty much all-white.

Oildale was a sundown town.

A sundown town is a town where,
if you are brown or Black,

you shouldn't let the sun set on you,

meaning you will get killed
in one of these towns

that calls themselves white.

Historically,
whites controlled law enforcement

throughout Kern County.

In the 1920s, certain leaders
of the Bakersfield police were revealed

to be Klan members.

And, to some members of the community,

that legacy informs
their relationship with police

to this day.

Law enforcement has had
a controversial history here

in Kern County.

It had that good old boy
community feel to it.

From 2009 to 2019,

68 people in Bakersfield
were shot by police.

81% were people of color.

Black people were four times
more likely than a white person

to be shot by a BPD officer.

Latin people were twice as likely.

One thing about Kern County
is that many Latino residents say

that they weren't understood
by law enforcement...

and that was, perhaps,
something that fueled

these confrontations,
which sometimes turned deadly.

Calahan. Bakersfield police
still investigating

that high-speed chase along Highway 178

that ended up in a deadly shooting.

We were just like,
"Oh, my gosh, another thing?

This is exactly what we're talking about."

At the time,

there were stories
of law enforcement officers

doing whatever they wanted to do.

There were stories that I didn't know of,

where law enforcement were killing people.

For the Ramirez
and Silva families,

every headline about another
killing rips open old scars

and adds new members to their grieving
and growing group.

James De La Rosa had just left
a night out with his girlfriend

when he encountered Bakersfield police.

He was 22 years old

and had never had
any trouble with the law.

On November 13, 2014,

officers attempted to stop a Jeep

with James De La Rosa inside.

They said he was driving erratically.

They follow him and, at some point,

on Highway 178,
try to initiate a traffic stop

and that's when he starts to flee.

There was a brief chase that ensued

and he ended up pulling
up to Mount Vernon and 178.

It was onto the freeway,

missed one exit,
got off on the second exit,

hit the center divider,
which was a huge impact.

Did he hit his head on the dashboard?

Did he hit his head on the
steering column?

Was he dazed?

It's impossible to know James'
state of mind after the crash.

But the police released their version

of what happened that night.

Immediately upon him exiting his vehicle,

he began behaving aggressively,

charging towards the officers.

He was yelling obscenities.

There's something that happens

inside of the minds of an officer

when you--
when turn on those red and blue lights

and you've got a car that's not stopping.

You have to remember that those
officers had adrenaline pumping.

They were excited.

They didn't know what was going on.

He reached suddenly for his waistband

and grabbed onto his waistband,

at which point officers opened fire.

Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed
and there are witnesses

who says that he was holding his hands up.

We don't have witness statements

saying that he had raised
his hands in a--to surrender.

In fact, witnesses told
a different story,

with some capturing
cellphone video on-scene.

We just seen a guy wreck
and then he got out

and just he got out of the car

and just waved his hands up in the air

and the cop shot him in the head.

Yeah, oy.

They fucking killed him.

Oh, my God!

He got shot!

Reaching for a waistband
has basically been used

to justify many shootings

of unarmed people around America

and James De La Rosa was one of them.

The more the police repeated
their version of the story,

the more his family questioned
why they would kill someone

who never had a record.

Or a gun.

James is not a weapon person.

There was no weapons on him,
no weapons found.

Why would a person just charge the police?

So, why would a person rapidly,
quickly advance on police

and reach for their waistband?

You know, are they suicidal?

Are they crazy?

James' family points
to one possible explanation.

He had recently lost a lot of weight

and his pants were often loose
and would start to fall down.

If he reached for his waistband,

if that did happen, that if that occurred,

it would only be for James
lifting up his pants.

They stuck with the story of James got off

and approached the officers
and they murdered him.

To the police, this was
another justifiable shooting.

But not to the families of those lost.

Don't shoot!

Don't shoot! Don't shoot!

Yet, everyone agreed
that what came next

was completely unjustifiable.

So this is kind of where
the story takes a very bizarre turn.

Because of it being
an officer-involved shooting,

they assigned an officer to stay
on guard of the deceased,

which was Aaron Stringer and his trainee.

What happens,
according to two documents

which was really the chilling
side of the end of the story

was one of the officers,
Aaron Stringer, allegedly,

according to his trainee,
manipulates the corpse.

Senior Officer Stringer
looked around the body at the wounds.

He moved towards the decedent's feet

which had been uncovered
when the sheet was moved

off of the upper torso.

While "joking around"

Senior Officer Stringer reached out

and touched the bottom
of the decedent's feet

and said, "Tickle, tickle."

Police officers have often
been accused, rightly,

of having a morbid sense of humor.

You are a firsthand witness
to man's inhumanity to man.

However, there are certain
actions and behaviors

that are indicative of a deeper problem.

Senior Officer Stringer turned
the decedents head back

to a straight forward position,
two times...

It was at about this time

that Senior Officer Stringer said
he loves playing with dead bodies

and laughed.

For them to play
with their deceased bodies,

you know, so disrespectful
and uncalled for.

He touched them in ways
that he shouldn't have.

My son was a joke to him.

That was no joke.

This is somebody we held dear
to our heart,

that we miss very dearly.

Aaron Stringer was placed
on administrative leave.

Officer Stringer may have been
fired or may have just resigned,

but no criminal charges
were filed against him.

It certainly was a black eye
to Bakersfield police.

Aaron Stringer left the
department in August of 2015.

Stringer did not respond
to our request for comment.

I think, when you hear a story
about an unarmed man

who's been shot dead by police officers

having their corpse tampered with
and made fun of, that is a very dark,

very disturbing thing to know about.

When I sat down and spoke
to Chief Williamson

about some of these really quite shocking

officer-involved shooting cases

that had happened in his city,
under his watch,

I asked him about one case in particular,

James De La Rosa.

Sometimes things just ha--

things happen to officers
and they're put in situations

and they have to make
the split-second decisions

and that's what why they're out there.

I mean, just going back
to one of those cases,

Mr. De La Rosa was unarmed.

I don't know who he is.

Which one--which one is he?

James De La Rosa.

He didn't know who he was.

And, to me, at that point,

it was pretty clear there was something

pretty extraordinary going on
in this part of the country.

By 2015,
as the number of people killed

in officer-involved shootings
actually increased,

so did the frustration
of grieving families

with law enforcement.

An officer involved
in the shooting with my brother

was also involved in the shooting
of James De La Rosa.

Name is Rick Wimbish.

R-I-C-K.

Excuse me.

Last name is W-I-M-B-I-S-H.

The detail that we would start
to sort of pick out of these cases

was the repetitiveness that these officers

were involved in the shootings.

An officer shot a man allegedly breaking

into a Subway sandwich shop.

One officer fired several shots.

Alderman later died...

Along with the increase in killings,

a pattern appeared to emerge.

Alderman was shot seven times.

After the initial police version
was released to the public,

new details often raised
serious questions.

In many cases,

it seemed there was more to the story.

It was about 4:20,
4:30 in the morning.

The police knocked at my door

and the police said,

"Jason Alderman reached for his pocket

and he's dead."

And they told me to have
a good day and walked away.

Didn't tell me how it happened,
where it happened.

Just told me...

they shot and killed my son.

On August 22, 2015,

two Bakersfield police officers
passed by a Subway

near Olive and Roberts Lane

that they believed a burglary
was happening at.

So, they pulled in and they said

that's when they saw a man
walking out armed

with what they believed was a firearm.

They confront Aldermen,

who's coming out of the establishment.

That's where an officer-involved
shooting happened.

Jason Alderman
was shot and killed by police

at a Subway restaurant in Oildale.

That man,
29-year-old Jason Alderman,

was pronounced dead at the hospital.

The news was hot to trot that, you know,

Jason had some bumps in the road
and had some criminal history.

Alderman has
a lengthy criminal record,

including arrest for burglary.

I mean, I don't even think
it was six hours

and it was all over the news.

That's all that played
on the news for days.

A court search
shows past cases against him

for drugs, alcohol,

battery on an officer,
and vehicle burglary.

People were just, you know,
thanking the officers

because another criminal's
out of Kern County.

I know my son made a bad choice,

but the police are--

they're not supposed to be
judge, jury, and executioner.

Jason Alderman was caught
in the middle of a burglary.

But why was he killed by the police?

I was told
by the detectives and the BPD

I needed to contact you in order
to get a coroner's report.

So, there's nobody assigned to this case.

So...

No. My nephew got murdered.

The person accused of killing him

is the Bakersfield Police Department.

All right. Thank you.

There was obviously initial calls

for whether or not
there was surveillance video

in that store when the shooting happened.

Initially, police reported
there was no surveillance video

and they did not have it, if there was.

To our knowledge, there is no video,

has never been video,

and we certainly don't have
any video in evidence.

The news report was saying that

the surveillance cameras were down from...

11:00 at night
to like 6:00 in the morning,

which, again, I found odd
because, if you're a business,

I mean, I would think, at nighttime,

you'd definitely want to make sure

your cameras were rolling.

We went to that Subway

and took pictures of the area

and there was cameras
outside of the Subway.

And then when we later went back,

they had dismantled the cameras
out of the roof.

What was the real story of what happened?

Whatever evidence is there
should be, you know,

obtained and catalogued, documented.

So, it's vitally important
that video evidence, especially,

is handled appropriately.

So, a woman from Subway reached out to me.

She had posted on Facebook,

"The video was on.

I turned it on before I left."

We did get legal
representation immediately.

His legwork was definitely
to find out what happened.

In fact, there was police footage

and surveillance video and it did work

and the police confiscated it and took it.

Nothing made sense.

So, I was trying to get
as much information

as I possibly could.

I asked, I begged for that video.

I wanted to see it.

One pattern that became clear to us

was that information
was slow to be released

and transparency was hard to come by.

It was sometime
right before Christmas

and I got a phone call
from the police department

and they told me
that I could come to the lobby

and pick up the video, so I did.

Mr. Alderman exited the Subway.

He's essentially shot dead
pretty much straightaway.

I was completely flabbergasted.

There's no way he saw those officers.

He crouches under the door,

literally almost on his knees,

and then you just see gunshots.

There's no aid rendered.

Two officers pick Jason up

and put him through the hole in the glass

and lay him on the concrete
in front of the store.

Like if he was a piece of trash.

I've never seen the video.

I've seen the clips from the news

that they made my son look, you know,

like he deserved it.

I'm not able
to watch that video.

I remember getting that surveillance video

and it revealed that

the weapon that police were talking about

was, in fact, a tire iron.

He did not have a gun.

He was holding a black BMW tire jack,

that police ultimately said
resembled a rifle,

and that's why they believed he was armed.

I saw he had some type
of an object in his hand.

I was at a distance
that I just couldn't tell at that point.

Part of the equation is how
fast can you pull the trigger

before they have a chance
to pull the trigger?

At that time, you believed
he was holding a gun?

Absolutely, yes.

I think a lot of officers
would've seen that

as a weapon, to be honest.

But you can buy yourself time,
if you're behind cover.

You can buy yourself time,

if you're making a good tactical approach.

The problem is, is that, when you're...

at a point of no return

and you don't have time and distance

that allows you to make decisions,

you are going to have to deal

with the very first danger
that comes to mind.

He was in the process of either
pointing it out the door

or coming out the door with it

about the time I heard the shots.

I'm going to call that bullshit
because that is what it is.

If you were to watch the entire video,

that tire jack is never pointed up.

It is always on the side of him.

He is carrying it,

but not like a rifle would be carried,

and it was never pointed to anyone.

It follows this pattern
that community members talk about,

which is shooting first
and asking questions later.

And you don't really start looking at it

from a different perspective,
until it does affect you.

You know, I've always heard about it.

I did follow the Ramirezes' case,

the De La Rosas' case.

I followed that, too.

But I thought,
"Man, that just must've been

a couple bad officers."

And, as you start unraveling the layers

and looking at the pieces of the puzzle,

you start to see that there's more

than just a couple bad officers.

When you ask about what discipline

officers have faced,

you don't get an answer.

A shooting is ruled justified

and an officer is returned to work,

but if anybody faces discipline,

it's very hard to know
what sort of discipline that is

because it's all shrouded in secrecy.

There is a single officer who was involved

in all three of those cases.

I think, for some people, it's bad luck,

but for other people, it may display

a chronic lack of training
and a real culture of impunity.

Jason Alderman died.

What is this chief going to do now?

He declared it was justified

and Rick Wimbish went back to work.

Rick Wimbish
declined to comment

on his role in these shootings.

But controversy over policing
in Kern County

was just heating up.

A blockbuster story of police
corruption was about to erupt

and shed new light
on the death of Jorge Ramirez.

Police Chief Greg Williamson

addressed concerns
about police corruption--

Bakersfield
Police Department detective

-pleads guilty--
-Admitted his guilt

in federal court today,
in an ongoing scandal.

So, I show up
to the police department.

I'd never seen so many
law enforcement officers

from different agencies
in a room like that before.

So many different media
organizations were there.

Walking into that room,
it was a very serious tone.

The public information officer
walked around

and handed us each a packet

that sort of detailed
the indictment and what happened

and everything kind of blew up from there.

This morning,

Bakersfield Police Detective Damacio Diaz,

43, of McFarland,
was arrested in this building.

He was charged in a 16-count indictment

that was returned yesterday
by a federal grand jury.

It charges Detective Diaz

with one count of conspiracy
to distribute and possess

with intent to distribute methamphetamine,

three counts of bribery,

with nine counts of attempted possession

with intent to distribute methamphetamine,

with one count of illegally disclosing

the contents of a wiretap,

and two counts of filing
false federal tax returns.

Damacio Diaz had collected drugs

while working for the
Bakersfield Police Department

and, instead of submitting them
into evidence,

he put just a portion into evidence

and then sold the rest
for his own beneficial gain.

You can't make this stuff up.

One side, a celebrated character
in a Disney movie,

and then the fall from grace
as a disgraced officer

who's basically trafficking narcotics

onto the streets of Bakersfield.

He was also working with this informant,

telling him information

about what law enforcement was doing,

to help keep him from being prosecuted.

Along with local hero
Damacio Diaz,

his partner, Patrick Mara,

was also arrested in the scandal.

Another former detective, Patrick Mara,

admitted his guilt in federal court today,

working with Diaz in an ongoing scandal.

We couldn't believe it.

I just said, "You know,
how can them guys do

that kind of stuff, you know,
who was watching them?"

I just couldn't understand it.

I did what I did
and I was wrong for doing it

and I admit that today.

But I will tell you, in full disclosure,

that I didn't know how to get out.

I had discussed it with my partner,

Pat Mara, numerous times.

We both knew we had to walk away

and stop this behavior, but we were stuck.

I was stuck. I didn't know how to get out

and I was very scared about what was going

to happen to me in the future.

But within a few minutes,
after being arrested,

there was such a relief in my spirit,

in my--in my heart, that it was over.

I was relieved. I lost...

focus on who I was
and what my purpose was.

I began to not only bend the rules,

I began to cross the line.

In very tiny, incremental steps,

but those small steps added up

and, sooner or later,
I was way beyond the line.

Meeting with informants by myself,

paying the informant off the books,

whether it was in money

or whether it was in drugs or in favors,

was a practice that was standard.

That was normal, for me.

If you fail to respond to the cues,

if you fail to acknowledge

that there are problems within your midst,

you're going to have corruption.

As the scandal engulfed

the Bakersfield Police Department,

questions surrounding
police conduct over the years

intensified.

If this kind of corruption had taken hold

among BPD officers
and the informants they managed,

then what really happened
with Jorge Ramirez?

We realized that Patrick Mara

had actually been involved
in the Jorge Ramirez Jr. case.

You can draw the conclusion,

from what ultimately happened
to these officers

and their fall from grace,

that they didn't always
do their job in the right way,

that there was kind of
a fly by the seat of your pants

type of informant management
process that was going on,

and that very well could have contributed

to some of the components
where Mr. Ramirez was killed.

Everybody kind of put
a spotlight back

on that Jorge Ramirez case.

We were all watching the news
and we were like,

"Oh, my God!"

And when they said on the news, you know,

they were putting informants in danger,

like that could be
what happened to my brother.

Bakersfield
Police Chief Greg Williamson

addressed concerns about
police corruption today.

I remember we were all just mad.

This is exactly what we're talking about.

This department is corrupted.

After the corruption
scandal was revealed,

there were increasing concerns
about how informants

were handled by BPD officers,
like Diaz and Mara.

But despite the scandal,

the department remained
tight-lipped on the details.

Ramirez's family is now asking

whether Ramirez was a police informant

who was leading officers to Harger

through a deal that was brokered
with the department.

On August 14, 2013,

a Bakersfield police officer
named Lerry Esparza

searched Jorge's home,

a legal search that was a condition
of Jorge's parole.

My brother just kept breaking
his probation or parole.

I think it was really hard to go through

that short period of time

of the life he was living,
that he wanted out.

He didn't want to go back to jail.

He was about to have a baby
that he wanted to be there for.

Jorge was arrested
by Officer Esparza

and taken into custody.

After the search warrant,
on the way to jail,

Mr. Ramirez inquired
that there's got to be

something he can do for me

to help make his case go away for him.

He did not want to go back to jail

and asked if there's anything
that he could do

to help make this case go away.

My response was that,

if that was something
he was willing to do,

we exchanged phone numbers
and I said to give me a call

and we would move forward from there.

I was not part
of the Jorge Ramirez case.

I was never there. I never met him.

I won't speak on anybody else,

but for me, personally,

I handled informants...

for many years, all the time.

Sometimes they were arrested

and, instead of being prosecuted,

they became an informant

and they had an obligation
to work off their case.

In my heart, now,
I believe that my son

was trying to just get this
out of the way, you know.

"Just leave me alone!

Let me live my life!"

I showed him the confidential
informant packet.

He didn't want to sign it.

He didn't want to put
his fingerprint on it,

for fear that that information

might be somehow given to the public.

If you put out their name,

saying Joe Blow was an informant,

helping law enforcement,
the criminal activity

around him and those that commit it

can be very vicious and vindictive.

You have a process established
in your agency

that requires registration
of your confidential informants.

Why? Because there has to be
some level of documentation.

Officer Lerry Esparza

saw enough potential
in Jorge as an informant

that he arranges a covert lunch

with one of BPD's then-rising stars,

Detective Patrick Mara.

I was aware
that my partner, Patrick Mara,

had met with and knew Jorge Ramirez.

Pat himself told me that he knew him.

Patrick Mara was a very tough guy.

He was fearless.

He had brass cojones.

Detective Mara went over
several case with Ramirez.

Detective Mara said those were
all handled with informants

and he was just trying
to get his point across

that informants are utilized all the time.

The information is not leaked.

He was just trying to gain
some trust with Ramirez.

At the end of that meeting,
Ramirez acknowledged

that he felt comfortable
with Detective Mara.

Mara was intrigued enough

to delay one of Jorge's court appearances,

to give him a chance to prove

how valuable his information could be.

Ramirez had an upcoming court date

and, perhaps, that was
the point of leverage

to be able to get the
information that they wanted.

Patrick Mara says
nothing came out of his plans

to use Jorge as a narcotics informant.

But in the days after their meeting,

Jorge thought he could provide
police information

on the whereabouts of Justin Harger,

a dangerous criminal high
on their most wanted list.

So, Chief, how was
Jorge Ramirez then killed?

If he, as we understand, was not armed,

was he shot accidentally?

Well, I think the problematic
issue in this case

is that Jorge Ramirez placed himself
in this position.

We were responding to the flash
and sound of gunfire

and returning fire at the same time,

so, it's quite possible

that Mr. Ramirez was shot at that time.

While not a registered
confidential informant

that night, Jorge behaved as if he was

and probably never thought
he'd lose his life

to the very same police
he was providing information to.

Informants are human beings,
just like you and me,

and we need to protect them.

This goes back to the lack
of checks and balances.

Because of the decisions
that they made,

they failed miserably.

Justice is what we want to--

I'm waiting to see the real story.

I'm waiting for them to expose to us

what really happened that night.

There's just so many turns
and twists to it

that you go like, "Where's the truth now?

Where does it go from here?"

The discovery
of text messages and phone calls

gave the Ramirez family a window

into what actually occurred
the night Jorge died.

Calls and texts between Jorge
and Officer Esparza began

around lunchtime.

Sometimes Esparza
reaches Ramirez...

3pm - Esparza texts Ramirez.

3:03pm - Ramirez texts Esparza.

...and sometimes
Ramirez can't reach Esparza.

At one point
or another, we figured out

that my son was talking to an officer.

I honestly didn't even know
my brother was talking

with Lerry Esparza
until the text messages.

The Bakersfield Police Department
had been looking

for Justin Harger in relation

to a shooting investigation
that they were working on.

Justin Harger, wanted
as an armed shooting suspect.

Ramirez was was acting as an informant

and helping police that night.

In broken conversation

and missed calls and cut-off texts,

but was trying to lead police to Harger.

And then, just before 10:30,

Jorge Ramirez sends the text

that would set this tragedy in motion,

two simple words, letting the police know

the whereabouts of Justin Harger.