Berkeley Trump backer, shot in police standoff, held for trial
Before the shooting, Ricardo Ruiz had already made headlines, prompted by sometimes violent confrontations at Berkeley protests.
A man who was shot in the face during a standoff in April with Berkeley police has been ordered by an Alameda County judge to stand trial.
Ricardo Ruiz, 34, goes by the name DJ Occult online and calls himself "the only Trump supporter" in Berkeley.
Before the shooting, his legal troubles had already made local headlines, prompted by sometimes violent confrontations at Berkeley protests.
Ruiz has claimed the police shooting that took the vision in his right eye, and fractured his skull, was the culmination of an anti-Trump political campaign against him in the famously liberal city.
He has alleged that a fake 911 call, known as swatting, brought Berkeley police to his door April 13, the morning of the shooting.
"We immediately looked into that," a Berkeley police sergeant testified Friday. "His claims proved false."
Ultimately, four BPD officers testified during Friday's preliminary hearing before Judge Thomas Reardon, shedding new light on what happened during the tense standoff.
Throughout the day, Ruiz listened closely, keeping his emotions in check.
Appearing in a yellow jumpsuit and glasses, with one side of his long hair styled in skinny braids and the other gathered into a low pig tail, he took notes with a stubby pencil and whispered periodically to his attorney, Matthew Dalton.
On the morning of the standoff, officers said they heard Ruiz rack a shotgun as he repeatedly threatened to shoot them unless they left.
BPD also found evidence that Ruiz fired toward officers that morning using a "high-powered air rifle."
After the shooting, officers testified that they found a loaded pump action shotgun just to the right of the front door. The safety switch was in the fire position, police said.
"All he would have to do was pull the trigger and it would go boom," testified BPD homicide detective Jonathan Loeliger, the lead investigator on the case.
To the left of the door, near "a pool" of blood, police found the air rifle loaded with lead pellets, its safety also in the "fire position."
According to BPD, officers also found evidence Ruiz fired other rounds that day as police tried to convince him to surrender: two flattened lead pellets on the floor near the front door and two new holes, possibly due to a small caliber handgun, in a glass skylight above his head.
The officers said they feared for their lives and the lives of their teammates after hearing "the unmistakable sound of a shotgun being racked" as Ruiz repeatedly threatened to shoot them.
That morning, a neighbor called 911 after hearing a woman screaming in distress, saying she couldn't breathe, in Ruiz's apartment on McGee Avenue north of University Avenue shortly before 7 a.m.
Ruiz — who has a history of domestic violence, according to police — has said they were just winding down after a long night out and that there had been no trouble between them.
But Sgt. Jesse Grant said his patrol team had taken the call seriously, calling for a Code 3 emergency response out of concerns for the woman's safety.
Ruiz has said he was watching YouTube and getting ready for bed, and didn't hear police pounding on his security door because his bedroom is about 200 feet inside his front door and behind a second door.
According to body-camera footage played in court, officers banged on the door and announced themselves for nearly 10 minutes before deciding to try to pry open the security door to ensure no one inside was hurt, or worse.
According to the footage, that's when Ruiz finally piped up, saying, "If you break open my door, I'm gonna shoot."
At that point, police said they did not know who was inside the apartment or that BPD had had prior contacts with Ruiz at Berkeley protests.
"We heard someone was in danger in there. We have an exigent circumstance," officers said. "We're asking for your cooperation."
That's when at least one officer heard the sound of the shotgun rack, as Ruiz shouted, "I will shoot," according to testimony.
As BPD tried to negotiate with him, Ruiz insisted he would "shoot indiscriminately" and "defend myself …with lethal force," a threat he continued to repeat throughout the 30- to 40-minute standoff, according to body-camera footage.
"You crossed into my line," he yelled at officers, at one point, sounding enraged. "I will use lethal force against you!"
Eventually, police said, at about 7:25 a.m., Ruiz popped outside quickly and pointed what appeared to be an assault rifle at them, repeatedly shouting, "back up now!"
He said it would be his only warning, Officer Miguel Garcia testified.
"I'll shoot you on sight," Ruiz promised, if he had to come outside again.
"I don't want that to happen," an officer replied, according to body-camera footage released previously by the department.
When Ruiz came out again nearly 20 minutes later, at 7:42 a.m., pointing what appeared to be a rifle at the half-dozen or so officers outside, Garcia heard five shots ring out from the officer to his right.
Ruiz dropped to the ground and went back into his apartment. That's when police moved in to detain him and see if he needed medical help.
When Officer Aaron Gasper took the stand, Dalton, the defense attorney, questioned him at length about why he hadn't said anything out loud during the standoff about hearing the sound of a shotgun being racked.
"It's very difficult to verbalize everything you see and hear at that given moment," he said. "We have to react as quickly as we can [and] try to do our best."
Prosecutor Darby Williams emphasized how BPD body-camera footage showed Gasper lean away abruptly at the moment he heard the sound.
In addition, other officers heard the sound later in the encounter and memorialized it on camera.
In his questions, Dalton stressed that no officers actually saw Ruiz fire at them when he opened his door — and said his warnings about shooting police had been contingent upon their entering his apartment.
And, while it did not come up Friday in court, video evidence of the most serious crimes appears to be somewhat limited.
For one, the body camera of the officer who shot Ruiz "had inadvertently been deactivated earlier in the incident," police said, likely due to an equipment malfunction. That officer did not testify Friday.
In addition, at the time of the shooting, the responding patrol team had already taken cover, resulting in limited sight lines to Ruiz.
"None of the body-worn cameras or fixed cameras captured a view of Ruiz when he again exited his apartment and pointed a gun at officers," BPD said previously.
Even the available footage of him coming outside the first time may be of limited value due to distance and poor quality.
Still, the officers who testified Friday were consistent in their explanations of what happened April 13 and why.
At the end of the lengthy hearing, which lasted until nearly 5 p.m., Judge Reardon held Ruiz to answer on 10 of the 11 felony charges he was facing — including four counts of assault on a peace officer and five counts of brandishing in the presence of police — with one of two gun possession charges dropped to a misdemeanor.
Ruiz has been in custody since his arrest in April and is set to return to court for arraignment Sept. 15.
Ricardo Ruiz from jail: "It's important that I talk about this"
Despite his incarceration, Ruiz managed to record his latest "Real Vibes" podcast from Santa Rita Jail in July.
"Call me the Second Coming, The way i resurrected in three days at age 33," he wrote, describing the episode. "The Phillistines [sic] aka Berkeley tried to crucify me during easter but they failed."
In the recording, he explained how he had begun going to Berkeley political protests to " make my First Amendment be heard," which ultimately resulted in broader political persecution, he said.
"The whole entire city kind of turned on me. It was a really strange phenomenon. I mean, it went from online vitriol and hate and threats and cyber bullying … [to] people watching where we live or people scratching my vehicle."
The day before the shooting, he said, he and his girlfriend went to San Francisco for a job interview and to look at a possible live-work space to move.
Then they went back to Berkeley and went out to eat, then headed to Oakland to see a metal band. Afterward, they did karaoke. They didn't get home until 6 a.m.
Ruiz said he didn't want to get into specifics about his case because "this is an ongoing litigation and, you know, the feds are gonna be listening 100% trying to figure out which way they can get me."
"But they ain't gonna get me for nothing," he said, adding: " I think it's important that I talk about this anyway."
In the podcast, Ruiz disputed the domestic violence allegations and said his girlfriend had already gone to sleep when police came.
He didn't realize anyone was there until he heard footsteps on the roof, he said.
At first, he said, he thought " internet goons" had found him. He ultimately realized it was Berkeley police, including " a couple sergeants that had been featured in some of my YouTube videos."
In the recording, he said he " was inside the entire time" and never threatened officers.
" The only warnings I gave was to them specifically not to enter," he said. "There were no threats made, just … statements of what would happen if they entered."
Making no mention of the weapons police said they found in his apartment, he said he only peeked out once, " And that's exactly when somebody let out a burst of rounds towards me and one of 'em caught me."
He said he closed the door and locked it, " And that's all I remember."
Ruiz was taken to the hospital in critical condition. He had surgery at Highland Hospital and was in a coma for three days.
Some of the people at Highland were kind to him, but others, police as well as doctors, had mistreated him due to his political views, he believed.
"All the UC Berkeley graduates, they knew exactly who I was and they were throwing me to the wolves," he said. " Berkeley has a history of violence against me, and that's the reality… I was just exercising my rights and I wanna make that clear."
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