Paramount, California:
Oscar Ramirez—Killed by Police While Breaking Up a Fight
November 10, 2014 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
From readers:
Near the railroad tracks behind Paramount High School, a green poster flapped in the wind: "R.I.P. Oscar Alberto Ramirez," it read. "Loved and Never Forgotten. Love, your baby sister." Oscar Ramirez, 28, was shot and killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff near the high school in Paramount, a city southeast of Los Angeles, on Monday, October 27. His life was stolen by the sheriffs, based on a rumor.
According to the Long Beach Press Telegram, detectives got a tip that a possible fight was pending and that one of the people involved had a handgun. Sheriffs responding to this tip saw Oscar Ramirez and two other youths near the railroad tracks behind Paramount High School. The youths ran. A deputy opened fire, killing Oscar, who was unarmed. News reports did not say that deputies saw a fight, only that Oscar and others "fit the description" given by an informant. No gun was found, although deputies reportedly searched the area for a week.
Oscar's family called a protest at the sheriff's station. Oscar's older brother, Kristian, said that Oscar was trying to break up a fight when he was killed. "Shooting someone. My mom's birthday is Friday, my dad's birthday was last Saturday, my birthday just recently passed a week ago. And now we've got to bury him you know. Not the right way to go," Kristian told NBC News Los Angeles.
Members of the Revolution Club went to Paramount High School with the Revolution newspaper and a display of people killed by the police all across the U.S. just in the month after the police in New York City used a chokehold to kill Eric Garner, a 43-year-old Black man, on July 17. (See "Stolen Lives: There IS an Epidemic of Police Murder!")
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