Rita Brandon spent hours calling nearby hospitals the night a Fontana police officer shot her brother in November 2023.
Police responded to a call from a family member, saying 33-year-old Jaime Valdez was lying in the driveway of his uncle’s home and threatening to kill his family. An officer arrived and later shot Valdez three times.
Brandon said police kept her family members inside the home during the investigation and told her mother that Valdez was being taken to a hospital and would be OK. But as she kept calling hospitals searching for her brother and information on his condition, she only came up empty.
The next morning, police told Brandon’s mother that Valdez had died.
“The whole time, my brother was actually in the driveway dead,” Brandon said.
Valdez’s mother, Isabel Valdez, his 14-year-old stepdaughter and his 10-year-old daughter are suing the Fontana Police Department, accusing the officer of using excessive force when he fatally shot Valdez while he was experiencing a mental health crisis. They claim that the officer who fatally shot Valdez escalated the situation and shot Valdez, who they said was unarmed and didn’t pose a threat to the officer.
The Fontana Police Department said it couldn’t comment on the shooting or lawsuit as the investigation is ongoing. The state Department of Justice — which investigates fatal police shootings of unarmed people — is still investigating the shooting.
Body-worn camera footage
Eight months after the shooting, Fontana police posted edited video from a body-worn camera. The agency said the responding officer, identified in the lawsuit as Alex Yanez, was “violently assaulted” before he shot Valdez and that responding officers attempted life-saving measures immediately after the shooting. Yanez was treated at a hospital and later returned to work, police said.
“I have a relative who’s not supposed to be here,” a family member said in a recording of the 911 call. “He’s one of my cousins that’s been coming around. He’s on drugs, and he’s threatening to kill us.”
An officer responded around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 11, 2023, to the home in the 7100 block of Big Sur Street, where they found Jaime Valdez lying in the driveway.
The edited body cam footage shows Yanez approach Valdez in the driveway and call his name several times. Yanez identifies himself as police several times and asks Valdez if he’s all right or needs an ambulance, but he doesn’t get a response.
Eventually, Valdez seems to tell Yanez that he wants to “go back inside.”
Yanez tells Valdez that he isn’t supposed to re-enter the home and asks “What’s up with you dude?”
A back and forth begins between Valdez and the officer, who at one point tells him, “You’re going to get put in handcuffs if you keep talking to me like that.”
“Chill out,” the officer continues, “You’re not going to tell me what to do. You’re not going to talk to me like that.”
The officer tells Valdez to remove his backpack and put his hands behind his back, the bodycam footage shows.
Valdez appears to resist the officer’s attempt to handcuff him.
“Yo, yo, yo, what are you doing on top of me like that bro?” Valdez says.
“I’m not doing nothing to you, bro,” Valdez later tells the officer and asks why he’s being arrested.
The lawsuit alleges that Valdez had trouble responding to the commands because of his altered state from drugs and mental health issues. Yanez escalated the situation, using stronger commands and a louder voice “which confused and agitated” Valdez, according to the lawsuit.
A struggle continued between the two and text on the video says Yanez tried to use his Taser, but it was ineffective.
Valdez appears to yell in pain as Yanez continues telling him to put his hands behind his back, the footage shows.
Police said Valdez reached for Yanez’s handgun before grabbing his Taser, when Yanez fired three shots at him.
The bullets struck Valdez once in the back of the head and twice in his left shoulder.
Throughout the encounter, the lawsuit alleges Yanez didn’t use proper de-escalation techniques or ask for the help of his supervisors or mental health professionals.
“The City of Fontana had a mental health unit that could have assisted, but this officer chose to take the law into his own hands,” said Michael Carrillo, an attorney representing Valdez’s family. “Instead of using what they’re trained to do, which is de-escalation techniques, this officer escalated everything and it resulted in this young man’s death.”
While Valdez had dealt with drug addiction and mental health issues, his sister said he was also a caring father who loved music and hoped to become a DJ.
Valdez helped raise his stepdaughter as his own since she was 2 years old. He had her initials and those of his biological daughter tattooed on him. After he split from his stepdaughter’s mom, he continued to be part of her life and provide financial support, family said.
Valdez was out-going and was silly with the girls, making them laugh while helping them with their homework or walking them to and from school, Brandon said. The family got together often for birthday parties or beach trips with the kids in Orange County.
By pursuing the lawsuit, Brandon hopes the officer is punished for his actions and that the police department makes changes so that officers won’t shoot someone experiencing a mental health crisis.
“We want them to pay for what they did,” Brandon said. “We believe this has happened too many times, and it just seems to be getting worse as the years go by.”
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