It was a dinner around the family home in Fontana when one or the loved ones of Jaime Valdez called 911 to ask for help.
“I have a relative who is not supposed to be here,” said the person who called the dispatcher without a name, according to a recording published by the authorities. “It is one of my cousins that has been arriving, it is taking drugs and is threatening to kill us.”
Police arrived that night on November 11, 2023 and found Valdez, 33, disarmed and lying on the entrance path of the residence, where his mother lived.
Exactly what happened next is under dispute, but Valdez ended up dead after receiving a shot in the back of the head by a Fontana police officer.
While the authorities have affirmed that Valdez tried to grab the officer’s weapon and Taser, his family alleges that the police unnecessarily increased the confrontation and then deceived them about the murder.
“[An] The officer basically shot a unarmed person on the back of the head and then a song to the family about a year or more, “said Bradley Yourist, a lawyer of the Valdez family.” It is quite atrocious. ”
Isabel Valdez has a photo of her son Jaime Valdez, who was killed by a Fontana police officer in November 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Valdez’s mother, Isabel, and her two daughter are now demanding the Fontana Police Department in a federal court, alleging excessive force.
“I want justice for my son,” said Isabel Valdez in Spanish among sobs. “The officer who took his life [should pay] Like any other criminal would pay. Just because he is a police officer, he shouldn’t avoid jail. “
She states that the police prevented her from leaving her house after the shooting, preventing her from seeing her son’s body. The family alleges that the officers said they would take Valdez to the hospital, but the autopsy report establishes that he died in a matter of seconds of receiving a shot. Valdez’s family did not find out his death until the next morning, says his demand.
The Fontana Police Department declined to comment, citing information investigation.
In A publication on social networks More than eight months after the shooting, the department said the officer who triggered the fatal shot, Alex Yanez, had been “violently attacked” and maintained that and other officers who responded to the scene were not surprised.
Yánez was heard before the shooting shouting at Valdez to “release my weapon”, according to the investigation records of the California Department of Justice. The department that was launched An investigation Two days after the shooting, he declined to comment because the probe is ongoing.
Yanez told the researchers that DNA tests would corroborate his statement that Valdez had “pursued” his weapon after disobeying the commands and having a fight.
But the results of the DNA of Yanez’s weapon returned in conclusion, according to the records of the State Forensic Services Office, and Valdez’s family argues that the edited version of the video of the camera used by the body of the confrontation released by the authorities several questions.
Valdez’s family described him as a music lover and a dedicated fan of Los Angeles Dodgers and the Dallas Cowboys. He had fought with heroin addiction, his family said in the demand, who argues that when the police found him lying on the entrance path that was the same as he could not “follow the commands because or his altered state of drugs and mental health.”
Jamie Valdez’s family, from the left: his sisters Rita Brandon and Angie Franco; One of his two daughters; His mother, Isabel Valdez; His other daughter; and his girlfriend, Yessenia Torres.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The edited video of the body chamber shows Yánez, who was hired by the Fontana Police Department in 2019, approaching Valdez, shouting repeatedly and did not receive an answer.
Pootoly, Valdez becomes alert between ENOLT, the officer who comes to “return to”.
The officer replies: “You are not supposed to be thought here … What happens with you, friend?”
They return and forest a few moments before Valdez tells Yánez to “go to the door, brother.”
“You’re going to be put [expletive] Wives If you keep talking to me like this, ”says Yanez, his words censored in the clip published by the Police.
Photos of Jaime Valdez in the house of a relative in Pico Rivera on February 7, 2025. The Valdez family has filed a lawsuit against the Fontana Police Department about his death.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Seconds later, Yáñez orders Valdez to keep his hands out of his pockets, then tell him that “put his hands behind his back, friend.”
Then, the video is interrupted by a message on the screen of the Fontana Police Department: “The officer tries to handcuff the suspect and resists.”
When the clip resumes, Valdez is still on the floor and it can be heard that Count Yánez “cools” while the officer tries to put it handcuffed.
The video does not provide a good view of Valdez at this time, but he can hear “I’m not doing anything, brother.” The sounds of a fight and a bark for dogs are audible before Valdez says: “You are hurting me.”
Yanez then repeatedly shouts “put your hands behind the back”, before using your taser.
“Put your hands behind your back,” Yanz shouts twice while Valdez shouts in agony.
The video goes to a police message: “The officer and the suspect begin to fight for the officer’s gun and an officer involved in shots is produced.”
You can hear three consecutive shots. “Send a backup,” says Yanez about his radio. “I am injured.”
Valdez family members say the police made false statements about the shooting and their condition.
“They are above all,” said their sister, Rita Brandon, to The Times. “They came and told my mother that my brother was going to be fine, that he was shot in the leg and that he was on his way to the hospital, and all the time he was outside in dead entrance.”
Yessenia Torres cries while talking about her late boyfriend, Jaime Valdez, 33, who was shot dead by a Fontana police officer in November 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
Family demand, presented in December at the Federal Court of Los Angeles, seeks damage to a list of alleged misdeeds, including the denial of medical care, aggression and negligence. The defense has presented a motion to maintain the process, with the next judicial hearing scheduled for April 24.
Michael Carillo, a lawyer of the Valdez family, said that “what immediately jumped over the video for me is the immediate climbing of the force that was totally unnecessary and led to the unreasonable use of force.”
Carillo said that Valdez was not physically imposing: only 5 feet 3 and 130 pounds. “Instead of descaling it, calling a mental health or supervisor unit, the officer intensified and intensified and finally shot [him]”Carillo said.
The Forensic report stated that a bullet hit Valdez on the back of his head and the other two hit his left shoulder.
Additional camera video with the body reviewed by The Times represents the emergency staff that cuts Valdez’s clothes while lying on the entrance path and performs chest compressions in an attempt to revive it before declaring it dead.
Michael Carrillo, a lawyer who represents members of the family or Jaime Valdez in his lawsuit against the Fontana Police Department, has a commemorative shirt for the 33 -year -old man who was killed in 2023.
(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)
The State Department of Justice is still investigating the shooting, as required by the law when a victim of police shots is unarmed.
The teenage daughter of Valdez, whose name is the retention time at the request of the family because it is a minor, said that she sleeps every night with a digital image frame that boques the photos of him, along with a video of the two playing both.
The girl’s biological father left when he was very young, and Valdez, whom he affectionately refers to Jime, met with his mother when he was 2 years old. A year later, he starts calling him dad.
“I knew what a father was until Jime appeared. My sister did not come until years later,” he said, referring to Valdez’s biological daughter while tears ran down her face. “So we were always two, so that was all I knew. Jime was my dad.”
