LEO Roundtable: Law Enforcement Perspectives

[00:00] Speaker 1: (Rock music playing) Welcome to Leo Round Table at leoroundtable.com. My name is Chip DeBlok, and I'm your host. We're a group of law enforcement professionals that talk about today's news and issues, but we do it from a law enforcement perspective. And yes, you recognize him, uh, Chief Ralph Ornelas, all the way from California, sunny California today. And, uh, Chief, you showed me a picture at the beginning of the show. Can you, can you throw that up so our, so our, at least our viewing audience can see that? Uh, and how long ago was that picture taken and, and, and how old were you?

[00:41] Speaker 2: Oh, I was, I think I was about 18, 19 years old.

[00:45] Speaker 1: Wow. Oh, that's pretty impressive. All right. So, uh, before you came on with the sheriff's office then in LA, in LA County. All right.

[00:52] Speaker 2: Yeah. I was living back in New York at the time, yes.

[00:54] Speaker 1: Okay. All right. All right. Excellent.

[00:56] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[00:56] Speaker 1: So, all right. Good deal. Well, welcome to the show. A shout-out to our sponsors. You know, our title sponsor, Gulls or Gulls.com. Don't forget that discount code. It's RADIO15 in order to get 15% off your next purchase at Gulls.com. We also have our satellite sponsor, Comply Technologies at complytechnologies.com. And yes, we are, uh, we just got off of satellite radio with Westwood One, and we're trying to make the transition to SiriusXM, so Comply Technologies is helping, helping us make that happen. We also have gunlearn.com, mymedicare.live, safeguardrecruiting.com, our streaming sponsor, thanks to them we're streaming to about a million followers right now during the live show. And if you have an agency, you're having recruitment issues, n- look no further than safeguardrecruiting.com. And also, twobells.com, they both have a new online store at leoroundtable.com. Please check them out.

[01:38] Speaker 1: Uh, shout-out to Brian Burns for the Tampa Free Press, Ray Dietrich, formerlawman.com, and Travis Yeates for lawofficer.com. Thanks to all those entities for helping make this show happen. Don't forget, we are on every podcast outlet you can, you can think of, including Spotify and Apple iTunes. We're also on all of our social media, Rumble, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Truth Social, you name it, we're probably there too. So, um, thanks guys for watching the show. And now to go ahead and whet the appetite, what in the world are we talking about today? Our main story, Spencer Pratt, I know you're gonna love this, Chief, becomes Batman in a wild AI video roasting California politicians. There is a law enforcement tie-in. I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you, uh, Chief, I really li- I really liked that. So we're gonna talk about that. Did you see, did you see the video, Chief?

[02:23] Speaker 1: I know you-

[02:23] Speaker 2: Yeah.

[02:23] Speaker 1: ... I know you, I know you did. Yeah.

[02:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. Did. I, I sa- I saw the other one too, um, that he did. It was called Latinos for Spencer Pratt, you know, so, uh-

[02:31] Speaker 1: (laughs) I didn't, I haven't seen that one, no.

[02:33] Speaker 2: ... I, I gotta tell you, he, what he's doing is so out of the box and with AI that, uh, even so many community people are really attracted to this guy who's just a genuine joe going, doing-

[02:46] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[02:46] Speaker 2: ... but he's doing the right thing.

[02:48] Speaker 1: I love it. I love it. So I got to admit, when I was looking at the, at the Gotham-themed, uh, you know, I- I was loo- I thought that, I thought, I thought you surely would be in there somewhere. I was trying to find you, but I couldn't find you, so, but yeah, anyhow. Uh, right, we got, uh, we got another one here. We've got a jury finds LAPD not liable for Burlington store shooting of a California teenager. I remember this. I remember I was covering it when the, when the, uh, bad guy rolls into the store a- a- and they had to roll, they, they had to roll in hot after him, but a, uh, a cop with a rifle took a shot, and it, it killed the bad guy. Bad guy got killed, but there was a ricochet too, and it killed a- a- a, uh, a teenage girl in a dressing room who was in there with her mother. So, uh, I mean, just a horrible story. We're gonna talk about the outcome. This is a civil suit, not criminal.

[03:31] Speaker 1: This is the, uh, one of these things where officers try to get qualified immunity for, uh, and, uh, so we'll see if everybody agrees with the outcome of it. But it's, uh, it's a, it- it's frankly, it's a very interesting story. I mean, it's a tragedy, but from, from a perspective of law enforcement and liability and stuff, it- it- it is a, it's a very interesting story. Uh, man convicted in a point-blank shooting of a Mountain View police officer. Guys, this is a hard video to watch, but we're gonna cover it. Body cam shows a shootout between a suspect and Oklahoma City police officers. Uh, and then Gregg Abbott warns Texas city to cancel their Muslim-only water park event or they're gonna lose $530,000 in state grants, and that's just for one year. They got to reapply every year for that money. It's great. He's got some stones. Man armed with a box cutter fatally shot by Bradley police officers, if we have time to get to that one.

[04:21] Speaker 1: So if you're ready, Chief, uh, let's go and, uh, and start on the main topic. All right. So, rvmnews.com, Spencer Pratt, who we're becoming more familiar with, uh, becomes Batman in a wild AI, artificial intelligence video, roasting California politicians. So, this is put together so well, um, in my opinion, but the chief lives out there, so I really want to hear what he has to say, although I'm gonna, I'm like a part-time citizen because I- I go, I go, uh, I go to California every year. But in fact, I'm trying to get it, I'm trying to get to the point where I actually stay there for like a month out of the year, but I haven't been able to pull that off yet. Um, I got to figure out a way to get the, to get the pooch over there, my dog. But, uh, Spencer Pratt turned heads online with a superhero-style video. It shocked viewers, stirred political conversation across California, as reported by the Gateway Pundit. And boy, did it create some stirs with what he did in this thing.

[05:11] Speaker 1: The ad which cast Pratt as a, uh, Batman figure took aim at a lineup of well-known state Democrats in explosive, cinematic fashion. Now, originally it was posted on Twitter, uh, you know, formerly Twitter, now called X. It, uh, there's a- a user named Charles Qur'an who posted it, not like the Qur'an, you know, but Qur'an, okay, guys? Get your minds out of the Muslim gutter. And, uh, before Pratt reshared it on Tuesday. The video opens as a Gotham-like LA. So LA (laughs) is like Gotham City. It's engulfed in flames, and there's a mansion with, with, uh, political and social elites in it, you know? And wait till you hear who they are. Democratic leaders are shown surrounded by armed guards labeled as socialist enforcers, okay? Karen Bass, right, the mayor, appears first, and she's portrayed as a Joker-inspired villain seated on a throne. Then we have the governor, Gavin Newsom, and Kamala Harris. We all know her.

[06:03] Speaker 1: They're standing beside her and, uh, sh- they're joking as partygoers are mocking desperate civilians who are pleading for help with the homelessness crisis (laughs) . And then the politicians are laughing at the woman complaining about the homelessness crisis as Newsom, the governor, delivers a crude remark while he's eating cake, and then he's drawing immediate attention from, uh, from the viewers. And then next, we got, uh, Nithya...Rahman, I'm, I'm not really sure who she is. You can probably help, help me out with that. Um, do you know off the top of your head?

[06:32] Speaker 2: Yeah. She's a city council member.

[06:34] Speaker 1: Okay. Okay, thank you. So-

[06:35] Speaker 2: Of a cer- of a certain district in the LA city.

[06:38] Speaker 1: So she appears as a, well they say a puppet character who demands that drug addicts be moved closer to the scene. And then in another outrageous moment, Harris, Kamala, uh, takes a drink from a bottle and says, "Bass already solved crime. I endorse her," uh, which the video notes is based on something that she said publicly. Uh, Pratt's depicted at his trailer, 'cause we all know he's living in his trailer 'cause his house burned down, right? Um, he's horrified at what he's seeing on the screen. He suits up in a Batman costume, determined to intervene and fight back against what the video describes as government corruption and moral decay in the city. (laughs) It just, it, it got ... It, it's gonna get better. He charges into all this chaos, confronts armed guards, defeats them. There's fighting and stylized combat sequences, and it's like a superhero thing. He storms into the mansion and he enters into the heart of the establishment that he's seeking to confront.

[07:28] Speaker 1: Um, Bass, the mayor, and the others continue to mock the city citizens, uh, until Bass declares that they're gonna burn this town to the ground. And then as soon as she says that, this tomato goes flying through the air and kaboom, just hits her right in the freaking, you know, noggin. A- and then, um, and, and then, then there's just like, like a food fight, but it's, uh, but it's like a tomato-throwing fight. And then they cut away. They show Marco Rubio. He's acting as a DJ encouraging Pratt to keep going. And, um, they got ... It was music. They got ... Anyhow, it, it kinda goes from there. Uh, i- i- i- it, it's a feel-good video. What do you think? Come on, Chief. What do you think?

[08:06] Speaker 2: Well, first of all, I commend him for the, the creativity of him and his team putting this together. And what it does, it ... and in a certain way with, with the young generation out there, uh, it really attracts them. And I can tell you right now, the news here on the West Coast s- about this mayor's m- mayoral race, he is really getting a lot of attention that he really wants to correct problems. And he's ... Through, through this AI, he's bringing issues to the surface, in front of your face, what they have failed: the council member, who's part of the government; and the mayor, and who's part ... who as the mayor of the, the city who did not, was not in the, in the city at the time when the fires took place, and when his, um, house and his mother's house and his father's house burnt down in Pacific Palisades. But not only thi- that vide- AI video. There's another one called Latinos for, for Spencer Pratt, which is even more creative than that one when he was the Batman.

[09:05] Speaker 2: And he's got this beautiful music, and he's dancing with his wife. It's like kind of a cartoon fashion, but he's ... basically it's saying, "Latinos, I will correct these problems." And it shows in front of a d- um, you know, a Griffith Park Observatory where there's all, uh, homeless ho- housing with tents. He's cleaning it up. All in front of schools, he's cleaning it up. And I gotta tell ya, e- even some of the Blacks on, um, African American community on Instagram, uh, Chip and audience, they are all in with him in regards to what he's portraying right now because he wants ... He's not a politician. He wants to solve a problem.

[09:45] Speaker 1: I think it's excellent. Yeah. I can't wait to see what happens. Predictions on the election. Come on. Are you gonna go, are you gonna go out on a limb on this, or what?

[09:52] Speaker 2: I will. I, I'm gonna go out. My ... I can't vote in there 'cause I don't live there, but I still ... You know, I worked a lot side by side. My uncle was LAPD for 35 years, and I'm ... my prediction, he's gonna win.

[10:04] Speaker 1: Oh. (laughs) Wow. That wa- I mean, really, how amazing would that be in the, in the Palisades and people being able to start building homes, and just the right things happening and stuff. So ... And they give people a little taste of what a Republican can do as opposed to a Democrat, you know?

[10:18] Speaker 2: Well, you ... Well, you ... Let me tell you, he doesn't portray himself as a Republican. He says he's an Independent, just to let you know that. And just, it's ju-

[10:24] Speaker 1: Uh, see, and I thought that he was a Republican. Is he ... ? 'Cause that's what I heard. He's not. He's an Independent. Okay. Interesting.

[10:28] Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, so anyway, but it's really interesting. Some of the polls from LMU, University of Lo- Loyola Amer- Loyola Marymount University, UCLA ... Well, guess what? Some of those polls, he's saying and some other people are saying, is that those polls aren't realistic, that he's actually, uh, ahead of them. And plus-

[10:48] Speaker 1: Wow.

[10:48] Speaker 2: ... when you have, when you have Karen Bass and this city council member going at each other, he loves it.

[10:55] Speaker 1: All right. Well, good commentary. We're off to a good start, Chief. Now, it always happens. Well, not always happens. Just-

[11:01] Speaker 2: Can, can I, can I just say ... can I say-

[11:02] Speaker 1: Yeah. Go ahead.

[11:02] Speaker 2: ... one more thing, please?

[11:03] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[11:04] Speaker 2: So I just want the audience to know that this city council in Los Angeles, what they have just d- done -- and I know, uh, Spencer Pratt has spoken about this -- they just approved no more pretextual stops the officers can conduct in Los Angeles. Now, let me just say this to you. Okay? Which means you can't pull anybody over for expired tags, nonfunctioning lights on your car, cracked windshields, broken rearview mirror, illegal tint, uh, loud exhaust, and missing license plate. So audience, I know, I know it's almost, almost ... I gotta go, but those are things, those are things that me and Chip made traffic stops which evolved into other crimes that we solved.

[11:47] Speaker 1: (instrumental music plays) That's how you get real bad guy, 'cause they don't run around with banners on their head saying, "Pick me up." That's how you find real bonafide bad guys. So too bad for them, because they're gonna suffer accordingly. Commercial break. We'll be right back. My family only cares about one thing: that I come home safe.

[12:07] Speaker 3: At Gulls, every order begins with a promise. Made with purpose. Stitched for support. Backed with pride. Answered by dedicated hands.Delivering the standard you have sworn to uphold. We serve more than the mission, we serve the person. Each piece is engineered to help get our first responders through the shift and back home safe.

[13:00] Speaker 1: Welcome back. Leo Roundtable at leoroundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlok, and I'm your host. We're joined by Chief Ralph Ornelas all the way from California. And, uh, we were just talking on the break. We've got a, uh, user, a Facebook user, 'cause, you know, we're streaming to about a million people right now and, uh, what is it, Sean... Was it Sean Hess? Yeah, Sean Hess is, uh, is typing in some derogatory comments, um, asking, you know, kind of like pushing buttons about how many people have you shot at, shot, killed, corruption, uh, you know, all this kind of stuff. So, um, yeah. And Chief, I know you wanted to address it. Go ahead.

[13:36] Speaker 2: You know, I, I, I... You know, listen, we respect the fact that Sean Hess can make commentary anytime he wants, and I love, I love when we engage people like that. But, I would say this, Sean. Put on your Sam Browne, put a badge on your chest, come out there and try to do the job. Now, you... Sean, if you're, you aren't looking at me, I've made, uh, per month when I was a young, young deputy, over 30 arrests a month, some big cases, and I've conferred a lot of people. I was blessed I never shot anybody. But let me tell you something, Sean. I've saved a lot of lives out there too. A lot of lives and got a lot of young people who are in gangs jobs. Uh, I mean, I mean, I helped a lot of people out that when you're... Put that badge on, Sean. You're not just a cop. You're a psychologist, you're a mentor, you're a teacher. I mean, you're, you're a sociologist. You're everything wrapped in that. And let me tell you something, Sean.

[14:27] Speaker 2: Unle- unless you've walked a mile in those moccasins-

[14:30] Speaker 1: (laughs)

[14:31] Speaker 2: ... be, be, be careful what you say.

[14:35] Speaker 1: Yeah, I don't think Sean has a clue, but, uh, but anyhow. No, look, uh, we will... Uh, look, you have the right to, uh, to your opinion and to voice it and, uh, and we have the right to continue to, uh, fight so that you have that right, uh, just like our military does, you know. So they, they, they get all the stuff and so I'm not complaining. You, uh, you know, if people want to make ig- ignorant statements, that's fine. It's not gonna effect me in how I do my job or the active people do their jobs 'cause you know what? We get it. We got, you know... We got too many things to go on to worry about that, you know, so, um, anyhow. Um, another shot from the cheap seats anonymously, so, um... But Guys, if you're ready, let's, uh, let's roll onto our next story. Uh, our next one here, uh, foxla.com. Uh, so Valentina or I guess, uh, Orellana, uh, Peralta, uh, is the name of the, I believe it's the female that was killed, unfortunately. It is a horrible story, but there is something...

[15:29] Speaker 1: There's a takeaway here. The jury fi- found that LAPD was not liable for a Burlington stores shooting, um, of a California teen. Now, the sto-... I, I tell you, it, it was such a, it was such a dynamic, um, scene on- caught on video. I'll never forget it. Um, we covered this a few years ago. So a jury reached a verdict on Thursday following the deadly shooting of this 14-year-old girl, uh, Valentina, who was killed by a stray bullet that was fired by a Los Angeles police officer. But it wasn't like an actual discharge or anything like that. He was trying to, he was trying to, um, to, to, to stop a bonafide bad guy. Um, it was inside of a North Hollywood Burlington store. We all know the Burlington, like, Coke factories and stuff, right? This happened back in December of 2021, so think about that. December 2021, that's, uh, what, about, uh, four and a half years ago, right? So in a nine to three verdict, and, and, and that's interesting.

[16:22] Speaker 1: It was nine to three, uh, the jury found that LAPD was not liable for the teen's death. And her family has sought more than $100 million dollars in the lawsuit, so, so the city did not settle. So I- I- I'm impressed with that, to be honest with you. Um, it must have been tempting when they're going after $100 million. Jurors deliberated for a little bit more than a day before they sided with the city. Now, on December the 31st, back in, uh, 2021, um, this, uh, this young girl was trying on a, a Christmas dress with her mother in a second floor dressing room of the Burlington store, uh-

[16:56] Speaker 3: (coughs)

[16:56] Speaker 1: ... when L- LA police officers responded to a call of a man and... I'm gonna mute your mic there so I can... Uh, there we go. But they're responding to a call of a man, um, on this thing and, uh, accused of attacking multiple people with a bike lock. As the encounter between the man armed with a bike lock, um, i- identified as Daniel Lopez, 24 years old, intensified. One of the officers, who was Officer William Dorsey Jones Jr., he fired his rifle and a stray bullet hit and killed 14-year-old, uh, this 14-year-old girl. Lopez also died in the incident. So I thought that it was maybe the same bullet as it was a stray bullet, so perhaps it wasn't the same. In a nine to three verdict, the jury found that the LAPD was not liable for the shooting death of the 14-year-old girl, Valentina. And more than four years after the girl's death, LAPD, uh, was being sued for the wrongful death. So, um, so that's what happened. Chief Ralph.

[17:50] Speaker 2: You know, first of all, let's face it. It's a sad story. Uh, a young girl's life at 14, um, you know, been taken and, you know, and all this... You know, all the emotion about the mother being there with her in the dr- the dressing room. But here we go again, you know. A, a, officers respond to suspect Daniel Lopez, who is beating people up with this chain or, you know, lock for his bicycle and hitting people. You know, the Officer Jones, I think his name is, w- uh, William D. Jones, uh, came in and he might have saved other peoples' lives and, you know, look at it. I remember watching some of the testimony. This, this young officer did a superb job testifying on the stand, and you can see it's killing him what he had to go through, you know. And, and this, and this young lady, you know, being, um, you know.... killed by a bu- a bullet like that.

[18:41] Speaker 2: But I gotta c- I gotta commend the City of Los Angeles going to court civilly to win this, this case, uh, Chip, any audience, because you know, it, uh, it was all premised on the mental distress and, um, I think it was, uh, PTSDs about the mother. And, and I believe that's what I believe the jury found that maybe that is didn't, that, that her attorneys didn't prove their case to show that. So, that's why you got a nine to three verdict, uh, which the city won, and I gotta commend the city. Sometimes you have to, you know, challenge these cases in court, you know, and I remember sitting, being a litigation commander for the LA County Sheriff's Department, them some case that we present in front of the county council, they, you have to fight these cases.

[19:33] Speaker 2: So, you know-

[19:34] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[19:35] Speaker 2: It's sad. It's either way, it's sad, Chip, any audience, that we, you know, a young girl, but sometimes you can't just pay people off to say, "Okay, let's give him this." And they had... so they, uh, did the, um, the plaintiff didn't prove their case.

[19:48] Speaker 1: Yeah. And now the, uh, well, and in these cases what... the law firms usually grab about a third of the, uh, of the winnings, correct? The family gets about two-thirds. So, this law firm is on the hook for... I mean, they, uh, they just donated all that time (laughs) and all the expense. Wow. You know?

[20:02] Speaker 2: Yep. That's true. Good point.

[20:04] Speaker 1: Yeah. I, I hate to see... Look, I, I mean, I feel for the family. Don't get me wrong. I, uh... and, and this is... I wouldn't say this is a clear instance of someone trying to abuse the system and go after cops. I understand cop fired a bullet, it ricocheted, and it hit the kid. So, I, I, I honestly don't hold the family that at fault on this. It's sad that we had to go to that. $100 million now, that's a lot of money, um, even, e- even in a death case. $50 million's a lot of money. So, I, I, I kind of question the amount they were seeking, but I'm glad the city brought it. Congratulations to LA, to LA and the LAPD. Commercial break. We'll be right back. All right, guys. It's time to talk about Compliant Technologies at complianttechnologies.com. And they're committed to providing non-lethal solutions that help officers gain the upper hand safely and rapidly in a humane, low optics manner, utilizing their CD3. That stands for conductive distraction and de-escalation device technology.

[20:53] Speaker 1: Now, their flagship product, we all know by now, is called The Glove. It's not only helped officers tens of thousands of times, but they've already had over 250,000 deployments, and guess what? No injuries, no deaths. It's an amazing statistic. They've actually achieved non-lethal status in an arena that predominantly can only offer less lethal results. And when it comes to weapons retention, transitioning to a sidearm or a conductive energy weapon, The Glove at complianttechnologies.com, they virtually eliminated weapons confusion. So, stay ahead of the game with Compliant Technologies and the revolutionary CD3 that hundreds of agencies have already tuned to nationwide. And friends, take it from me, when it comes to safety, this is one of the most common sense hands-on solutions that's ever come along. Go to complianttechnologies.com today, and tell them that Chip sent you. Welcome back, guys. Leo Roundtable at leoroundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show.

[21:37] Speaker 1: My name is Chip Deblocque, and I'm your host. We're joined by Chief Ralph Ornelas from California, and, uh, while we've, we've had, uh, quite the topics so far, um, I'm ready to start one with a video component. If you're okay with that, Chief, we're gonna pop over. We're, we're, we're still in Cal- I mean, how many California stories can we actually have in a row? But yeah, we're now, we're in Mountain View, California. Where's Mountain View at, Chief, compared to wherever you've been?

[21:59] Speaker 2: It's north... It's way north of me. I'd say I've never been there.

[22:03] Speaker 1: No? Okay. All right. So, uh, a place called Mountain View, California. So, this is at rumble.com, our favorite law enforcement video channel, which is called This Is Rumble. Uh, a man convicted in a point-blank shooting of a Mountain View police officer.

[22:25] Speaker 2: Hey, man. How's it going? Yeah. It's all good. What's up? (gun firing) Oh. (screams)

[22:33] Speaker 1: So, guys, I will tell you, and, and, uh, I'd be surprised if the chief's never seen this too, but I've never seen this video. An- and so sometimes, especially when you have jurisdictions where they don't timely release videos, they, they, they just don't release them u- unless it's... until it comes court time, and then after the court proceedings, you get a bad guy convicted or, or not convicted, then they'll release it to the public. So, I suspect that's what happened in this, um, in this case. So, Mountain View, California, an East Bay man found guilty on Wednesday of attempted murder and other crimes for a 2022 shooting of a Mountain View police officer at point-blank range. Hard to watch. During a traffic stop. An ambush captured by his body camera that touched off a su- a, a, a day-long regional manhunt. Yeah, this guy temporarily got away. Um, and, and notice that I said "attempted murder," so yeah, the cop survived. He's okay.

[23:24] Speaker 1: But he should be waking up and praising and thanking God every day for the rest of his life because he should be dead. I mean, no doubt about it. So, Jeffrey Thomas Choi, um, uh, C-H-O-Y, is our bad guy, 37 years old of Union City, convicted by a jury on Wednesday. There were two days of deliberations, a three-week trial. Um, Choi was initially charged with, uh... be a criminal complaint following the July 16, 2022 shooting. So, um, so yeah, that was about four years ago, almost, almost four years ago. Four months later, prosecutors secured a criminal grand jury indictment to speed up the proceedings, but it still spanned almost four years. The attempted murder conviction was accompanied by two charging enhancements, also prov- uh, approved by jurors, because the shooting, it targeted a cop, and this guy used a gun. And, uh, on that conviction alone, he's facing up to 50 years to life in prison. Good for that bad guy. He deserves it.

[24:17] Speaker 1: A Mountain View police officer who had five years on the force, uh, he's working a DUI enforcement shift, and, uh, less than an hour after midnight on, uh, the day of the shooting, he sees this guy, our bad guy, Choi, driving a gold Ford Explorer, and he runs a stop sign, and then he barrels through a four-way, um, intersection. So, investigators say that after the Ford driver, since identified as Choi, stopped, the officer walks up to the driver's side of the vehicle. The driver's window was... looked like it was completely rolled down. After a quick... and I... and-... if the, the article says, "A quick excha- exchange of pleasantries..." It was, it was qui- it was like, it was like, it was so brief it was almost nonexistent, right? They say the officer heard a slide rack on the pistol and then the guy raises it up a- and shoots him. Um, I couldn't hear it. Um, uh, I- i- i- i- if it was, it w- it was, it was fluid and in motion. I mean, this, there was not...

[25:10] Speaker 1: I mean, when you read the article, you read it thinking, "Well, if I heard someone rack a freaking slide, I'm, I'm already moving," and it, it... Yeah. No. It didn't happen like that. This thing, i- if you w- if he was able to hear it, it would have been, it would have been so fast. It was just, like, fluid. Um, so moments later, Choi points the, uh... Moments later, I mean, like, like a fraction of a second later, you got this black semi-automatic handgun sticking out the window. Two shots ring out. The cop starts to dive away, gets caught in the, uh, in the, um... I think it was in the, uh, in the arm and in the, uh, in the shoulder. The, uh... They say it's a bulletproof vest. There's no such thing as a bulletproof vest. So the ballistic vest blocked the one in the shoulder, and, um, he, he was hit in... Let's see. Bullet hit the forearm. So he was hit in the forearm of, of his left forearm and the left shoulder.

[25:53] Speaker 1: And, um, he was treated and released at a hospital the same day, so that's good. So cop's okay. Our bad guy, though, drives away from the shooting scene. Cop is a little bit incapacitated, all right? And bad guy makes it less than a mile away, and he ends up crashing the car that he gets away in, you know, that, that he got pulled over in. And so then he runs away and he hides for several hours in a, in a, in a laundry room somewhere and about 24 hours later... So think about that now. Now 24 hours later, you got the Alameda County Sheriff's Office. A surveillance plane spots the sucker. He... And he's in a Black Bear Diner, you love the name, right? In Fremont. And so now who do they call in? The Mountain View Police 'cause those are the guys that have skin in the game, right? They've already had one of their officers shot. But they call in the freaking US Marshals. Those are the guys, man. Nobody does it like these guys. Choi again attempts to flee from the diner.

[26:42] Speaker 1: There's a foot chase. They take him down. Now at the time of the shooting, our guy's out on bail for a March 2022 gun possession arrest and charge. He's banned from having firearms, uh, because of an earlier attempted robbery conviction in Alameda County. So he's a prohibited person. No wonder it's a charging enhancement. A warrant was later issued for his arrest for not appearing at a related court date that June, so he had a warrant out for his arrest when he was getting stopped by the cop. So that's the way this thing rolls. Um, Chief Ralph, your thoughts on this?

[27:08] Speaker 2: Well, I tell you, God bless that officer, number one, being still alive. I mean, my heart goes out to him. Um, I, I, I have to give some critique, though. And, and, and this officer, if you're listening or watching, don't take this severely, but we have to learn from these things. Number one, that... Based on your... what you, you articulated, uh, Chip, he ran a stop sign, ran an intersection. When he made the traffic stop of this Choi suspect, right away, it tells me something. I might not have walked up on the car. I might have w- wanted to request backup, uh, uh, to, to have more personnel before I approached this, okay? But if I was gonna approach it the way he did, I would walk to the back of that vehicle, tap the vehicle, and see what his response... And then also before I get to that position near the window, I would say, "Let me see your hands. Hands.

[28:05] Speaker 2: Hands."

[28:05] Speaker 1: (laughs) You're so right. You couldn't see his hands.

[28:07] Speaker 2: Hands.

[28:07] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[28:07] Speaker 2: Hands. Hands. Hands. And guess what? Many times, probably you and I have done the same thing. Got to that, no hands, I'm going back to my car. There's a reason nobody wants to cooperate, right? With a weapon inside. So please, officer from Mountain View, my gut, my heart is with you all and all the young officers watching this. Tactics approach of these things is so critical. If you... I mean, if you, you feel something, you gotta go with your gut reaction and you have to put them in a difficult position, not you in a difficult position.

[28:41] Speaker 1: Right. Yeah. You know, well, one thing's for sure, and I wouldn't say this if the officer had been killed or anything, but he survived, um, and, and there's a... Look, he will never do this again. He will never do this... He will never do a traffic stop like this again, I, I guarantee you. And if he would not have gone through this, he would have, and thank God he didn't die. So he learned a hard lesson and hopefully other guys at that agency are too. You know, it's all about training. And even with the best training, sometimes you get lackadaisical. Um, but, you know, um, you never know. And, uh, and so yeah, w- walking up, that's the first thing. You're right, I know. I, I was waiting for him to say... Now I, I, I read the title so I knew that there was gonna be a sh- a, a sh- a point blank shooting. But I, you know, the guy's... You know, you could see into the car.

[29:24] Speaker 1: You could see his hands were not visible and I kept waiting and said, "Surely he's going to say to the guy, 'At least put your hands on the steering wheel.'" You know? But, but he didn't and, and, and he paid, he paid a price.

[29:34] Speaker 2: You know, the other thing, uh, regards to the prosecution, um, Chip, and I... You, you might not agree with me. If I was the district attorney, I would have went with premeditation. I believe this guy planned it, to, to shoot this dep- this officer when he walked up on him. I mean, come on. But you know something else? I bet that Choi suspect, though, when he shot him twice, that the officer was dead and-

[29:59] Speaker 1: Oh. Maybe, yeah.

[30:00] Speaker 2: ... then took, he took off. Not... You know, he thought... Because what... If... You know, he might have got out of the car and shot him again, but I think he thought he really got the officer and he ca- he left. So, you know, some... I'm disappointed in no premeditation, I'll be honest with you.

[30:17] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[30:17] Speaker 2: Okay?

[30:17] Speaker 1: That's a good... That is a, um, that is a good point. I mean, the guy is looking at 50 to life, uh, but of course here he'd be, he'd be getting freaky. He'd be, he'd be sitting in a, in a, in a chair getting electrocuted, you know? (laughs) So, so...

[30:29] Speaker 2: You, you know, Cali- California, Chip, Prop 57 looked at all the felonies of people they said that wasn't violent and it let a lot of, a lot of these people out, these prisoners out. They depopulated some of the prisons.

[30:44] Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's not surprising to me, but that's scary. Yeah.Um, we got a little less than two minutes before we take our next break, so if you're, uh, if you're ready, Chief, we have a, um ... let me just see what we've got here. Yeah, we've got, uh, we got another one here. Um, I'll tell you what, let me ... let's talk about this Muslim thing, um, before we cover another story with a video component. Um, I, I may have enough time to get through it, I don't know, uh, before our commercial break in a minute and a half. But rvmnews.com, Greg Abbott, uh, we love Greg Abbott, uh, the governor of the wonderful state of Texas. He warns Texas City to cancel a Muslim-only water park event or lose about half a million, 530K in state grants. So May 7th, 2026, Texas Governor ...

[31:26] Speaker 1: well, uh, uh, the Republican Governor of Texas, uh, uh, or of, uh, Texas, Greg Abbott, put Grand Prairie, which is a suburb of Dallas, where I'm going at the end of the month, on notice after learning about an event that he says, uh, directly violates the Constitution and the values of equal access to all Texans, as reported by the New York Post. So, it was reported in the New York Post. In a sharp letter sent on Wednesday, the governor warned Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen that the city could lose more than half a million dollars in state funding if it fails to cancel upcoming event at a s- ... it's a city-owned water park, but it's described as Muslims only. That's the rub. So, the annual DFW Epic Eid, uh, you know, celebration, it's planned by a local Islamic group at the taxpayer-funded Epic Indoor Water Park. It was originally marketed online as being exclusively for Muslims. And Abbott's immediate reaction was firm.

[32:16] Speaker 1: The governor blasted the plan on social media, called it a blatant case of religious discrimination, reminding everybody that state law forbids Muslim-only or really any other kind of religiously segregated public event on um, on uh, on public property. We're gonna cover this more, but it's religious discrimination. "It's unconstitutional," Abbott wrote bluntly. Commercial break, we'll be right back. All right, guys. Time to talk about GunLearn at gunlearn.com. And hey, there's some new stuff going on with GunLearn, so pay attention. So, uh, actually, GunLearn, for starters, is the first and it's the only company that offer a step-by-step program that takes you from your present knowledge level to become a safe, accurate, and competent certified firearm specialist. Now, that certified firearm specialist, that certification, even if you got it five years ago, guess what? Now it's worth college credits.

[32:59] Speaker 1: Uh, GunLearn, they have partnered with Smarter Degree and through Smarter Degree's university partners, now they can offer that degree, and it's got, it's worth college credits. Even if you got it five years ago, now you have those college credits. And they've been doing this back since 1996. They've been teaching everything that LEOs, law enforcement officers, need to know, not only about firearms, but also ammunition to all facets of law enforcement. You can actually start today with online training, or you can sign up to attend a live seminar. And if you have your own agency, if you're chief or sheriff, you can actually host a seminar for absolutely no cost. This is an amazing opportunity. Go to gunlearn.com to get more information. Hook up with the founder, Dan O'Kelly. Again, that's gunlearn.com. Welcome back. LEO Roundtable at leoroundtable.com, the law enforcement talk show. My name is Chip DeBlock, and I'm your host.

[33:39] Speaker 1: We are joined by Chief Ralph Ornelas from California, and we left off talking about ... You know, I just realized that this is the first story we've had that is not in California. Uh, so, well, imagine that. The, uh, the title is, is Greg Abbott, which of course is our ... we love Greg Abbott, governor of Texas. He warns a Texas City to cancel Muslim-only water park event, or they're gonna lose over half a million dollars in state grants. And that is a place called Grand Prairie, which is near Dallas, which of course I'm gonna be at at the end of the month with, with, uh, four other people from the show. And it, it, again, uh, it says that the imminent question, it talks about it's an indoor facility, cost taxpayers $88 million to build, and it opened in 2017. It's marketed as a family-friendly, friendly destination regularly. Now, they say they regularly host private events, but the rub on this one is that this is a religious thing. They weren't, you know ...

[34:28] Speaker 1: It's not like, you know ... Could you imagine having a private event and them saying, "Okay, we're only, uh, only white people are invited"? I mean, could you imagine that? Or only Indian people. In this case, it's only Muslims, but yeah, yeah, I could see how that, that would violate this, the, you know, the law a- a- and probably rightfully s- so, uh ... Wh- what are your thoughts, Chief Ralph?

[34:46] Speaker 2: You know, I commend the governor, and the reason why, it's public land. It's a public location. Uh, if ... and, and, you know, in, in that article you sent, I reviewed it. It is, it shows Dana Loesch, you know, uh, having the flyer. And on the bottom, it basically lays out Muslims only, uh, and, and, (laughs) and, and, and certain proper dress, uh, modest burqas and stuff like that, and they would do some religious things. Uh, so listen, I could tell you this. In New Jersey, where my mother-in-law lives, um, the Indian population has a fair all the time in August, but it never says Indians only. You know?

[35:21] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[35:21] Speaker 2: Everybo- everybody's included. You know, everybody's included. And you know something? My wife and I, one time, we went both of us to see it. It was beautiful. You know, it was beautiful. You know, so the, the ... I, I believe the, the monies that are from the public monies, I, I agree with, uh, governor not giving them that $535,000, which they probably need. And also, it just, it just, it doesn't seem right to do that. And I mean, it just, it ... I don't know why they're pushing for this. Uh, it just doesn't seem right for it, and I'm glad that he stood up to it. And now the o- the ... and I think what he's worried about too, audience and, and Chip, is the no, uh, no-go zones. That's what I think he's worried about, that, that could expand if they allow it to have, have this event, and then they may go to no-go zones and stuff. So, I believe, I believe, you know, it, it's just not appropriate. It's not appropriate.

[36:12] Speaker 1: Yeah. Good, good, good point. I, I, you know, I was gonna ask you if you had any predictions, but how do you really predict how someone's gonna react on this? Are they gonna still have it in lieu of the half a million dollars? I would think that most, most cities, unless they are super funded, um, would probably go in and say, "Okay, we're gonna, we're gonna ..." It's against the law. Either way you look at it, it's against the law. The, the fi- uh, they have a fining mechanism, so no one's gonna end up, uh, w- i- in jail if they do it, but, uh, certainly I hope they do the right thing. We'll see.

[36:40] Speaker 2: You know, Chip, you bring a good point up, and I wrote at the bottom of my notes, the city's in the crosshairs. What decision will they make at this juncture about this situation?And you know something? It concerns me because, you know, uh, a per- a college professor of mine, Harvey Kushner, wrote a book, The Holy War on the Home Front. And, and guess what? This city council could fold over like a tortilla and let it... let this go.

[37:06] Speaker 1: (laughs)

[37:07] Speaker 2: You know, a- and so, you know, I don't know, Chip. It's gonna be very interesting to see what takes place.

[37:12] Speaker 1: Yeah. I, I, I'm curio- y- you know what? If they... I'll tell you what. If they thumb their nose up at the governor, this is a governor you don't wanna mess around with, or, or, or the, or the AG in, in Texas. And, uh, if they thumb their nose up, I may... When I go to Dallas, I may have to take a little diversion and, and go check out this Grand Prairie or whatever they're called. I may have to go check 'em out. So, um, yeah.

[37:33] Speaker 2: (sighs)

[37:33] Speaker 1: I'll might... And I'll take video.

[37:34] Speaker 2: I, I, I'm, I'm, I'm looking forward to hearing more about this, how it unfolds, because, you know, this situation is gonna be... set precedence, maybe, to other states what goes on.

[37:44] Speaker 1: All right. I love it. Well, look, we have our choice, uh... Well, your choice, uh, Chief. We have a body cam. It shows a shootout between a suspect and the Oklahoma City police officers. Um, so that was the video number two. And then the third one was the man armed with a box cutter fatally shot by Bradley police officers.

[38:02] Speaker 4: You Jose?

[38:04] Speaker 3: What's up, man?

[38:06] Speaker 4: So... called us, told us you made some suicidal comments.

[38:15] Speaker 5: 10-4.

[38:16] Speaker 4: Well, she sent this. We saw those text messages about the suicidal comments. Okay? What do you got in your hand there, boss?

[38:25] Speaker 3: We're just checking on you, man.

[38:31] Speaker 4: So what... So what's... What we'd like to do, Jose, is we'd like to call an ambulance here for a mental evaluation and make a determination whether or not you're gonna go to the hospital for, uh, a mental eval. What do you got in your hand, dude? Can't copy 526. Ah, stay there.

[38:57] Speaker 3: Stay there, man.

[38:59] Speaker 4: Would you drop what you have in your hand?

[39:01] Speaker 3: Take your shot. Take your shot.

[39:02] Speaker 4: Drop it. Less lethal.

[39:04] Speaker 3: Taking his shot. No.

[39:05] Speaker 4: Can't cop. Get me some more units. No, make- (gun firing) .

[39:11] Speaker 3: Ah. Can't copy 49. Taking your shot. No

[39:13] Speaker 4: That less lethal.

[39:14] Speaker 3: Copy. More units. No. Take- (gun firing)

[39:18] Speaker 1: So which would you rather cover?

[39:20] Speaker 2: You know, I'd rather cover the one that's number three, um, at Bradley Police Department, if you don't mind, Chip.

[39:27] Speaker 1: You got it. All right. So again, rumble.com, our favorite law enforcement video channel called... This is, uh... this is Butter. Uh, This is Butter gets all these videos out before anybody else gets them. So we're in a place called Bradley, Illinois. So it's 12:46 PM. So it's really right in the middle of the afternoon on April the 8th. Bradley Police Department officers, they are doing a, um, a, a wellness check. It's a... They call it a wellbeing check. It's a wellness check, and Bradley... on a guy that's making suicidal statements. So police on a... on the Tuesday said that Jose Orzosco, uh, or, or Orozco, sorry, 34 years old, he's armed with a box cutter. So we have two officers that show up. They're interacting with this guy and they're telling him that they've seen text messages that he's been, uh, sending, saying, uh, suicidal things. And so, um, so they say... So what we'd like to do here, Jose... The cops are...

[40:17] Speaker 1: The verbiage was pretty, pretty good, I thought, is, "We'd like to call an ambulance here for a mental evaluation and make a determination whether or not you're gonna go to the hospital for a mental eval." And at that point in the video, the officer appears to notice a bladed object that this dude had in his hand. So it kind of looks like they may be in a backyard kind of a area with, like, another structure back there, like maybe a garage or shed or something. And we've got officers that are at least... at least two or three officers that are spaced out. And, but th- and this guy looks like... You know, body cams make it l- appear that they're further away than they really are, but this guy looks like he's got a decent distance. I had a, a, a, a tough time determining that the guy had a knife in his hand. That's how far it was on the body cam.

[40:58] Speaker 1: Um, so, um, "What do you got in your hand, dude?" the officer asked then and so the guy, uh, initially stands a- there at a distance from the police with his arms at his sides and then he starts, uh, walking towards them. And, and then the officers say, "Ah, stay there, man." And, uh, then he's continuing to advance and as he closed the distance between them, police again s- say, "Hey, stay there, man." And so then, um, we got another officer saying, "Hey, take your shot." He can be heard telling officers, "Take your shot." So one officer started calling for more units. Our bad guy increases to a jog. Now, I will tell you that the officer that we're looking at has got a firearm. The one off on the side immediately in our view has got a taser and, um, the, uh, the bad guy, he, he starts picking up speed from the get... He starts doing a jog and then he's, he's essentially doing a sprint. Um, so the second officer calls for less lethal use and a single...

[41:52] Speaker 1: Uh, well, anyhow, um, shortly after that, there's three shots fired. The bad guy falls to the ground. As he begins to move again, they're yelling, "Drop the knife. You'll be shot." They should have said, "You'll be shot again." And so then he can be seen getting to his feet with the weapon still in his hand and it j- shows the first officer again firing his gun three times. And police repeat the command to drop the knife and our bad guy's taken to the hospital where he is pronounced dead.

[42:15] Speaker 1: Chief Ralph, two minutes

[42:18] Speaker 2: You know, uh, first of all, I, I... Well, you... As you stated, I liked his initial conversation trying to calm the guy down. "What's going on? This is what we wanna do for you." And then the guy is... has... asks, "Hey, take... What's in your hand? Drop it, drop it, drop it." Then as you stated, he's running towards him. And before that, though, he sh- the taser... I don't know whatever happened to the taser. I don't know if he ever hit him or not hit him. And then the taser... You could see the yellow taser's on the ground in front of the, the officer... his backup officer to the left. And he shoots him. It's justified, Graham versus Connor, you know, and I get it. Uh, he goes down. I, I, I got to... I'll be honest with you. He's, he's, he's trying to get up.I mean, he shot already. He could have kicked him in the face. He could have done something like that, you know, but he shoots him again. It's still justified.

[43:10] Speaker 2: The interesting part about it, though, look at the other officer to the left, though, his, his camera's at an angle, they're yelling at this guy for two and a half minutes, "Drop the weapon. Drop the weapon. Drop the weapon." And finally, a supervisor comes from the right side of the main shooter who shot first, he comes out and he kicks the, the knife out of the hand. You know? And it's, you know, listen, it's all justified, but it just, to me, it looks, it doesn't look good for two and a half minutes, the guy's laying there and he's, and the guy-

[43:44] Speaker 1: Bleeding out.

[43:45] Speaker 2: ... he's bleeds, and he's asking him, "Drop the we-" And he's still, the officer is still saying, "Drop the weapon. Drop the weapon. Drop the weapon," for two and a half minutes. The guy's gurgling. He's dead.

[43:57] Speaker 1: Yeah.

[43:58] Speaker 2: You know? So, if I was a defense attorney, you know, guess what?

[44:03] Speaker 1: You'd be saying if you would have given him first aid and you could have saved his life if you wouldn't have been there.

[44:07] Speaker 2: Yeah. Maybe. Maybe. But-

[44:09] Speaker 1: Maybe.

[44:10] Speaker 2: ... the, the, the supervisor came around, and I can't remember exactly what he said, he kicked the knife out of the, the box cutter out of his hand, and he started the process calling in paramedics and stuff. You know, there, there's certain things you have to put the... You know you shot the person, there's things you could do and, to orchestrate that a little better.

[44:33] Speaker 1: All right. Excellent commentary, Chief Ralph Ornelas from California. Thank you so much, Chief. And of course, you were a commander with the LA County Sheriff's Department before you became a police chief over there, so you wore both hats. I love it. So, thanks so much. It, it, great topics, uh, for the day's show for you, too.

[44:50] Speaker 2: I thank you.

[44:52] Speaker 1: Um, hey, I'm looking over here at, uh, at Rumble, you got your fan base is growing over on Rumble because MVS and Bill BC, all these guys like what you're saying and stuff. So, um, anyhow, so thanks for backing up the chief on what he's saying, guys. I do want to mention again, you know, we've started our new website, leoaffairs.ch, because that means that it is in, uh, the Sweden and in the, um, in the Switzerland area. So again, leoaffairs.ch, check it out. And also, our sponsors, guys, supporter, sponsors. Uh, we have got golus.com. We've got compliantetechnologies.com, gunlearn.com, americare.lifesaverrecruiting, and 2bellas.com. We'll see you guys back Monday, 12 noon Eastern.

[45:32] Speaker 1: (upbeat music)