The family’s lawsuit says many of the gunshot wounds allegedly show Ramirez was shot in the back of the head and the back of the his shoulders.
LAKE WORTH, Texas — Editor’s note: the video above is from a Sept. 3, 2021 story covering this shooting.
A North Texas family is suing the city of Lake Worth for “wrongful death claims” over allegedly not training its officers properly, which the family says played a factor in an officer-involved shooting last year.
On Sept. 3, 2021, a Lake Worth police officer fatally shot a person after he allegedly pointed a gun at officers during a chase in Fort Worth, officials said.
In the lawsuit, the family says the man who shot was Estevan Ramirez and the officer who shot him was Lake Worth police officer Jonathan Granado, who has later resigned from the department. The lawsuit says Granado shot Ramirez seven times in the back and used excessive force without legal justification.
The family is suing the city for actual, punitive and exemplary damages.
“Defendant [Granado] embarked on a willful, malicious, reckless, and outrageous course of conduct that was intended to cause and, in fact, caused Decedent [Ramirez] to suffer extreme and severe mental and emotional distress, agony and anxiety,” the lawsuit alleges.
This is the second case Granado is involved in.
Chief of Police J.T. Manoushagian revealed in January 2022 that Granado was the same officer who fatally shot Ramirez and also hit a man while in his patrol SUV in 2020.
Granado is being sued for both incidents.
Mansoughagian in a January 2022 news conference said he decided to go public with Granado’s involvement in these two incidents because “our community deserved to hear that connection from us.”
Around 2 a.m. the day of the September 2021 shooting, Lake Worth Police said officers had tried to pull over the vehicle Ramirez was in for driving without lights and speeding on Loop 820. The car was initially driving about 88 miles per hour in a 65 miles per hour zone, according to Manoushagian.
When a Lake Worth officer started to follow the car in an attempt to initiate a traffic stop, the vehicle turned off its lights, police said.
“Now it was driving at a high rate of speed, completely black and on the interstate,” Manoushagian said back in September 2021.
The car Ramirez was in eventually crashed into a curb, the lawsuit says. Lake Worth Police said this crash happened after the driver in the car tried to make a right-hand turn off Interstate 30 in Fort Worth, hit a curb, and blew the left front tire.
Manoushagian said a neighboring police department let Lake Worth police know that the people in the vehicle should be considered “armed and dangerous” because the other department said its officers had “prior dealings” with this vehicle.
After the crash, Ramirez and the three other people got out of the car and started running away from officers, according to both the lawsuit and the police.
As Ramirez was running away, the lawsuit says, “he became entangled with an officer and a struggle ensued.” It alleges this was a different officer than the officer, Granado, who eventually shoots Ramirez.
After Ramirez freed himself, he began running away again, according to the lawsuit. It was at this point the lawsuit says Granado unholstered his weapon and aimed it at Ramirez before firing multiple shots at Ramirez’s back. He was shot at least 4 times as he was running away from officers, according to the lawsuit.
It also alleges that many of the gunshot wounds show that Ramirez was shot in the back of the head, back of the left shoulder, back of the upper right shoulder, and back of the right shoulder.
The lawsuit says Ramirez was carrying a weapon at the time, but he was not pointing it at any of the officers or other people. However, Chief Manoushagian said Ramirez was pointing it at one of the officers.
“The officer said out loud, ‘Gun, gun, gun, he’s got a gun,'” Manoushagian said in September 2021.
One of the officers then shot the suspect with the gun, according to police. At the moment he was first shot, Ramirez did not move toward an officer, according to the lawsuit.
After he was shot, the officers went back to their police car, grabbed a trauma kit and both began performing CPR and other life-saving measures before MedStar arrived.
Ramirez was eventually taken to a hospital, where he died.
“The situation that our officers encountered today is almost exactly the kinds of situations and conduct this individual had engaged in before with other police departments,” Manoushagian said in September 2021. “Not a unique set of behaviors at all.”
The lawsuit says Granado’s use of deadly force was not justified because Ramirez was running away from Granado and was not pointing a weapon at anyone. It also alleges Ramirez could have been safely apprehended rather than shot because multiple officers were aware of the pursuit of the vehicle.
There are multiple videos of this incident from different angles, according to Manoushagian.
“You can clearly see the gun,” Manoushagian said in September 2021. “I’ve reviewed the video myself, and it’s very clear to see.”
The family alleges in the lawsuit that Granado had inadequate training regarding the use of force and the de-escalation of force. It also says he shouldn’t have remained on staff after he hit the man with his SUV in 2020. The lawsuit says the city of Lake Worth failed to “supervise and/or discipline” Granado.
“On and for some time prior to September 3, 2021 (and continuing to the present date) Defendant City deprived Decedent of the rights and liberties secured to him by the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution, in that said Defendant and their supervising, and managerial employees, agents, and representatives, acting with gross negligence and with reckless and deliberate indifference to the rights and liberties of the public in general, knowingly maintained, enforced and applied an official policy recognized by the City and LWPD,” the lawsuit reads.
The lawsuit was submitted on Oct. 17, 2022.