David Ordaz Jr. Was Already Down When Remin Pineda Kept Firing

December 2, 2024

David Ordaz Jr.’s family called for help. They were dealing with a mental health crisis outside their East Los Angeles home, and Ordaz, a 34-year-old father, was reportedly suicidal and armed with a knife. What followed was not the careful, controlled response a family should expect when asking authorities for help. It ended with Ordaz shot dead on the sidewalk in front of the people who loved him.

On March 14, 2021, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the family’s home after Ordaz’s sister called authorities. According to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office, deputies encountered Ordaz while he was armed with a knife. Two deputies fired beanbag rounds after Ordaz stepped toward them. Prosecutors said Ordaz then ran toward deputies with the knife and was shot multiple times.

That initial volley was not the part that later put Deputy Remin Pineda in criminal court. The allegation against Pineda focused on what happened after Ordaz was already down.

According to the District Attorney’s Office, after Ordaz fell to the ground, dropped the knife, and lay with his back facing the deputies, Pineda continued firing his handgun. That accusation turned a fatal police shooting into a criminal case against a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy.

In November 2022, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced that Pineda had been charged with one felony count of assault with a semiautomatic firearm and one felony count of assault under color of authority. The District Attorney’s Office described the case as an on-duty, unlawful shooting.

The facts alleged by prosecutors were blunt: Ordaz had been shot, had fallen, had dropped the knife, and was on the ground. Pineda was accused of continuing to shoot anyway.

For Ordaz’s family, the pain was made worse by where it happened. This was not a distant police encounter seen only through paperwork and official statements. It happened outside the family home, in front of relatives who had called for help during a crisis. They did not call deputies so their loved one could be executed on the pavement. They called because they needed someone to help keep him alive.

The criminal case did not end with prison time. In November 2024, Pineda pleaded no contest to felony assault charges. He was sentenced to two years of probation, ordered to complete 250 hours of community service, undergo one year of psychological counseling, surrender his certification as a peace officer, and write an apology to Ordaz’s family. A 180-day jail sentence was suspended, meaning Pineda would only face that time if he violated the terms of probation.

Ordaz’s family objected to the deal. In court, family members pleaded for more than probation. They argued that a sentence with no jail time did not match the seriousness of what happened to David Ordaz Jr., a man whose children were left without their father.

That is the part of the case that makes it impossible to file away as just another police shooting. The family asked for help with a suicidal man. Deputies responded. Less-lethal rounds were used. Gunfire followed. Then, according to prosecutors, after Ordaz was down and had dropped the knife, Remin Pineda kept shooting.

Police often describe these moments as fast, chaotic, and dangerous. Sometimes they are. But accountability is supposed to matter most when the moment has already changed. If the threat has passed, if the person is down, if the weapon is no longer in his hand, then another shot is no longer about protection. It becomes something else.

David Ordaz Jr. died during a call that began with his family asking for help. Remin Pineda walked out of court without jail time.

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