On April
9, 2004, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies Daniel Dail
and Victor Locklin were on duty in a marked Los Angeles
County sheriff’s patrol car in full uniform when they
observed a blue Honda Civic enter the intersection of
Imperial Highway and Croesus Avenue in the City of Los
Angeles against a red traffic light. The driver, later
identified as Ricardo Rodriguez, continued driving
irratically, ultimately making a U-turn in the middle of an
intersection and entering the westbound 105 freeway on-ramp.
Deputies
Dail and Locklin attempted to pull Rodriguez over but he
refused to yield and a short pursuit ensued. During the
pursuit, Rodriguez exited the freeway at Vermont, turned
westbound on 119th Street, then armed himself
with an assault rifle. Rodriguez then exited his vehicle
and fired several rounds at the deputies. The playground of
West Athens Elementary School was 117 yards south of the
officers and directly in the line of fire. Approximately 15
children were playing outside at the time. Fortunately, no
one was injured.
Ricardo
Rodriguez escaped. He was not seen again until he was
arrested in Mexico on a provisional arrest warrant pursuant
to our extradition request on October 29, 2004.
Late
last week we were notified by the United States Marshal’s
Office that the extradition was granted. Rodriguez was
returned to the United States yesterday and will be
arraigned in Division 5 of the Inglewood Court this
afternoon. If convicted on all offenses, he can be
sentenced to up to two life terms plus 54 years in state
prison. He will be eligible for a parole hearing after
having served 58 years, 4 months.
We would
like to thank the tremendous efforts of the Los Angeles
County Sheriff’s Department, the United States Marshal’s
Office, and the Office of International Affairs for their
dedication and hard work which led to this arrest and
extradition. Let me caution you, however, this is one case
and one success–the impasse created by the Mexican Supreme
Court decisions which now prohibit extradition of a fugitive
when a sentence of life imprisonment without the possibility
of parole remains. Even straight “life” sentences are
questionable and rulings inconsistent. We continue to urge
our federal government to take action to remedy the
situation.
Joining
me today are Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca; Deputy
Chief Charlie Almaza, U.S. Marshal’s Office, Central
District; and Tony Burke, Supervising Inspector, U.S.
Marshal’s Pacific Southwest Regional Fugitive Task Force.
