Bennalack at right with his four victims, clockwise from upper left: Diaz, Villegas, Ramirez, Parker.
Anaheim Police Officer Nick Bennalack, who is now on the SWAT team, cherishes his image as a real tough gunslinger – he and his colleagues like to refer to him as “Nick BUCKSHOT Bennalack.” However, some us us call him “Backshot,” for his tendency to shoot his victims while their back is turned. We are just now learning about his fourth victim, Daniel Ramirez, April 4, 2019.
One of the tensest moments of my wife’s life was when her oldest son – in a case of completely mistaken identity – was held at riflepoint by this trigger-happiest of Anaheim policemen, until the cops realized they had the wrong guy.
Bernie.
That was around 2014, when Backshot had already killed two young men. The first was 30-year-old Filipino-American father Bernie Villegas, who got Anaheim cops nervous when they heard he was walking around his apartment complex with a gun … which turned out to be a b-b gun, a birthday present for his son. Well, Officer Nick took care of that worry, by shooting good old happy-go-lucky Bernie in the back five times, without a warning. That was in January 2012. Bernie’s family failed to prevail in court, and this was BEFORE the District Attorney began issuing reports, so nothing to link to there.
But six months later Nick messed with the wrong family, the wrong mother, when he shot unarmed, 25-year-old Manuel Diaz twice, in the butt and the back of the head. Nick CLAIMED to have thought the fleeing young man’s cell phone was a gun. This was Anaheim’s penultimate police killing (of eight mostly Latino young men in twelve months, mostly unarmed) that led to the riots of 2012 and some modest reforms. (They killed Joel Acevedo the next night.)
Manuel with a poem of his
The DA at the time, Tony Rackauckas, ALWAYS managed to find every police killing justified, but Manuel’s mother Genevieve Huizar took it to court with the aid of ace civil rights attorney Dale Galipo, and in 2017 a civil jury reached a finding of “excessive force” against Bennalack for Manuel’s killing (and awarded her an insultingly modest sum.) No consequences were forthcoming for “Backshot.”
Some time around 2015 or so there were a lot of protesters out in front of an Anaheim City Council meeting – probably something to do with us trying to get district elections – so they thought they’d better get a bunch of cops out front to keep order, and one of them was Backshot Bennalack. I’d probably had a couple of drinks, when I turned my back to the cop and taunted him, “Don’t shoot me now, Nick!” Probably a foolhardy thing to do, but it’s fun to look back on.
I didn’t know at the time that he had also recently shot and killed an ACTUAL ARMED MAN in Sept. 2014, alleged armed robber Steen Thomas Parker (below) outside of a Fry’s Electronics. Assuming the police’s story was true and the DA’s investigation was honest (always two huge if’s) this guy actually was firing at the cops from his SUV.
.
.
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The late Daniel Ramirez, with daughter.
And NOW we hear, a year after the fact, about Bennallack’s FOURTH killing, April 4 of 2019. I had missed the story back then about a guy “barricaded in an attic” shot fatally while coming down the stairs, but it turns out that was Backshot striking again, and the victim was another 30-year old father, Daniel Robert Ramirez III.
Daniel
And Dale Galipo, who won the excessive force verdict in the Manuel Diaz case, and last year won a whopping $13.2 million verdict against Anaheim for the choking death of Vincent Valenzuela, is representing Ramirez’ family in the wrongful death suit – complaint here.
It was early one morning in West Anaheim (north Harcourt Street) and Irvine cops were up here executing a search warrant for some stolen guitars and amps. According to the Times story, the Irvine cops arrested two men at the house on outstanding warrants, and on hearing sounds from a garage attic called Anaheim PD for backup. Two men were in the attic and refused to come down until tear gas was deployed up there. One came down peacefully and was taken into custody. Then Daniel also came down peacefully, as ordered… and Bennallack shot him multiple times. .
“Backshot” in court.
Why? Anaheim police told the Times they thought they heard someone in the attic “make verbal statements they would shoot officers.” But NOW Anaheim cops have body cameras, and it appears the two men in the attic were only asking NOT to be shot. And they were unarmed. When the press writes that “it’s not clear that Ramirez was the suspect” for the alleged guitar theft, that means he wasn’t. Accused of nothing, unarmed, Daniel Ramirez was shot multiple times by Nick “Backshot” Bennalack while complying with orders and coming down from the attic, and then was denied medical care long enough to bleed to death.
It’s been over a year with no DA report which also feeds suspicions. We’ll have more details in the coming months, as the attorney Dale Galipo shares them with us. But it’s long past time that repeat killers like Nick Bennalack should no longer be policemen. It’s time to clean house, Anaheim!.
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UPDATE – Video of the Shooting
Here you’ll see the tense last five minutes of Daniel’s life, as seen from Anaheim SWAT officers’ bodycams. Daniel’s friend has just come down from the attic unscathed. The head SWAT officer keeps coaxing Daniel to come down, with his hands showing, and reassuring him that he wouldn’t be shot. Daniel wants to make sure he can at least have a cigarette before “going to jail.” (Why was he expecting to have to go to jail? I still don’t know.)
Daniel slowly comes down, as instructed, and Bennalack immediately opens fire on him, and a few seconds later shouts “GUN! GUN!” Daniel had no gun. How is the D.A. going to explain this? When is APD Chief Cisneros going to fire him, before Nick gets a fifth victim?
Hat-tip to Greg Silva Sign from 2014
Update – Protest & March, Sat. June 13!
From the relatives and friends of Daniel Ramirez:
This Saturday 06/13/2020 We will unite and march in a peaceful protest to the Anaheim Police Station until we get justice for Daniel and the other three families that lost their loved one.
Our March will begin at 4pm.
Starting address is Brookhurst Park
2271 W Crescent Ave, Anaheim, CA 92801.
We will march to the APD.
Don’t forget to wear your Dodger “D” hats and face mask!
Everyone is welcome to protest with us, all that we ask of everyone is to please keep it peaceful. The citizens of Anaheim have known the Anahiem police to be violent and corrupt. Even knowing that please let us march in peace and shed light to the abuse of authority in our community.
If the families of the three others that were taken by this officer see this, please come march with us.
#BernieVillegas
#ManuelDiaz
#SteenThomasParker
Report Sunday on Yesterday’s March
Lotsa pictures here: https://www.facebook.com/corina.aguilar.332/posts/10214324021088355 I’ll copy over some of the best ones…
There were about 40 friends and family, and I brought along another half dozen. I asked “Do you guys know how far the police station is from this park?” and they did. “Yeah, FOUR MILES,” which was important to them since 4 was Daniel’s favorite number and he was the fourth victim of Bennallack. So off we went.
They had a lot of good signs and t-shirts made, including “Enough is Enough” teeshirts, which went along with their original chant:
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
NICK IN CUFFS!
Here’s the two signs I made:
Four, count them four human lives murdered by a serial korupt killer kop in Anaheim CA. No accountability ever seen and before you know it, Nick Backshot bennelleck will murder again if he’s not taken off the streets!!!! FTP
Daniel was a piece of crap drug dealer known to always carry a gun and hand out with other gangsters while he was dating corina she tried to kill her self saying she’s tired of doing drugs with Daniel it’s embarrassing how dumb I look marching for a gangster drug dealer some of those people there’s he sold drugs to
Those last two posts are by the same anonymous coward.
If this were a living person being potentially defamed like that, I would spike it unless I was provided with and had verified the commenter’s identity. I don’t think it’s much better because the person in question was fatally shot in the back, but that’s not my choice to make.
You do not know anything about these two they were love birds he didn’t do drugs and he was never a drug dealer please be respectful you did not know him the amazing man he was to everyone
STOP YOU DO NOT KNOW HIM LEAVE HIM ALONE HE WAS A AMZING MAN
it was proved in the court of law daniel was wrongfully killed. Grow up before you decide to make any horrible remarks. Nobody is begging you to protest for him. Lets be a better human being because that man had dreams, a life, a childhood, a family, and they were all stripped from him by a corrupt officer.
Note before they got Daniel they got 4 other people with warrants in the house and also found 2 guns gets your facts right stop believing your lies Daniel was the local drug dealer and karma finally got back to him
So Nick is basically a hired assassin paid with taxpayers’ money. A serial killer’s dream job.
Cops as soldiers. Soldiers need enemies. And that’s us. We are essentially quartering troops. thinks there’s an Amendment about that somewhere.
I hope you Spitzer guys aren’t holding your breaths.
Buckshot murdered Manuel Diaz, and kept his job, that’s a fact. The city then awarded his mother, Ms. Huizar an insulting amount of money, that’s also a fact. Sounds like those facts emboldened Buckshot, since he continued to murder again and again without impunity.
Why don’t we take 8 CA death row inmates who instead of waiting an untold number of years to be executed, just have Buckshot help things along by lining them up and shooting them all in the back? Then reward him with a nice big bonus and some extra paid vacation time! Oh and of course let’s include medical/dental insurance, life insurance, 410k retirement, etc., at no cost to the city. Let the taxpayers pay his salary and foot the bill for having a paid killer aka public servant on staff. Sounds reasonable to me..
What the hell – he intended to shoot this dude. This is murder. None of the other officers fired. buckshot should be tried for murder.
*We have a simple theory…We need to Drug Test our Sworn PD Officers every 90 days.
They also need to be reviewed for Domestic Abuse and Mental Disabilities including
diagnosed PTSD. Without do this……the beat will go on and on and on!
my cousin. yes. he was fucking murdered.
Interesting, one of the Anaheim cops who killed my brother Brian Drummond by kneeling on his neck and back until he quit breathing was also promoted to the swat team. His name was Chris Ned.
I guess it’s a natural progression.
Anaheim’s and Santa Ana’s City Councils should really pay attention to Minneapolis’s City Council.
Anaheim City Council with its 5 out of 7 members funded by the Police Union, and Santa Ana City Council with its 6 out of 7 members funded by the Police Union?
We can dream…
We can take notes, report, and organize. Every goddamned voter in those cities needs to be contacted. We have enough people to do that, if we wanted to.
Excuse me for interjecting into your conversation, Mr “pragmatic”, and I say with whatever is left of being fraternal with you, that you sound delusional again.
Most people by now understand the need for police reform, but the substance/extent of the reform is still up for grabs, even in Minneapolis.
What defunding or disbanding the police would mean? Whatever is defined, as in the article linked below, the challenge is to overcome the “main resistance to change from pro-police legislators and powerful police unions.”
We need to move from Vern’s mantra of the “police union” as the main obstacle, and involve the OC Dems congress team. The DPOC is moving in that direction, per the OCR today.
Are you, and Vern, going to be able to organize every voter, do you have enough people, when both of you seem to be even more isolated from the political resources needed to reach those goals?
Vern was not even able to submit the Sidhu recall on time, and that his Friday police demo was sparsely attended. I appreciate Vern’s efforts and dreams, but we need to be pragmatic, at times.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/08/minneapolis-city-council-police-department-dismantle
Didn’t learn anything from Santa Ana?
On April 4th 2019 police officer Nick Bennallack from the ANAHEIM police department KILLED Daniel Robert Ramirez III. Daniel was UNARMED and complied with every order that was given. Body cam has now been released after a year of daniels family trying to seek justice. We now have proof and evidence showing Daniel complying with orders and begging “PLEASE DON’T SHOOT ME” he was terrified for his life, moving slowly every step of action he took. Officer Nick Bennallack abused his badge yet again. This is the 4th murder BENNALLACK has under his belt with no consequences. Police brutality is REAL. Bennallack is still working and serving APD who will be next?
Daniel was a very caring and loving man and he was violently taken from us by police brutality. He left
behind a beautiful daughter that he loved
dearly.
This Saturday 05/13/2020 We will unite and march in a peaceful protest to the Anaheim Police Station until we get justice for Daniel and the other three families that lost their loved one.
Our March will begin at 4pm
Starting address is:
Anaheim 92801
We will march to the APD
Everyone is welcome to protest with us, all that we ask of everyone is to please keep it peaceful. The citizens of Anaheim have known the Anahiem police to be violent and corrupt. Even knowing that please let us march in peace and shed light to the abuse of authority in our community.
If the families of the three others that were taken by this office please come march with us.
#BernieVillegas
#Manuel Diaz
#SteenThomasParker
Please come join us in our March to get justice for Daniel.
#georgefloyedisdannydeez
#nojusticenopeace
We will be there Corina. Is the meeting address left out on purpose for now?
Thank you!
Brookhurst Park
2271 W Crescent Ave
Anaheim, CA 92801
United States
Could you write me at vernpnelson@gmail.com? I need to know some things, like, do you want a big crowd there?
Most of Manuel’s family has gone to Arizona. And I don’t know how to contact the Villegas’ or Steens.
Hat-tip to Greg Silva Sign from 2014
I was tazed 7 times in my back as I was already down on the ground with a officers knee in my back…This happened in 2013…
To make a long story short I went to high school with this Anahiem Police Department Officer who played on my high school football team…He of course was a little puss in high school and wanted to be more than what he was…So he hide like the rest of the cowards and became a bully cop!!!
after tasing me 7 times which my medical report shows excessive taser he took me directly to jail not the hospital then he was told by the watch commander it’s required to go to hospital before going to jail after being tased…Which was there 2nd mistake!!!
His name is Thomas Salcedo he has red hair and round big eyes he has since then shaved his head bald…It should and could have been a lawsuit but since i’ve never had been in trouble at the time, when i went to court they advised me to plead guilty to resisting arrest with no probation nd give my dna to have the charged dropped, which would have been possession of a controlled substance, so I did being unadvised about my options at the time, plus I didn’t want the felony on my record for a 20 sack that was for someone else in the first place….
but I wish I could have stuck it to the Anahiem PD with no vaseline just how they do the people they should be serving and protecting!!!!! They are one of the worst gangs in Orange County!!! I wish someone had a class action lawsuit because I would definitely stand up and do everything I can to make those sons of bitches pay!!!! FAPD!!! If i had the chance I would have done things way much different then what I did….!!!!
I don’t want to pay for a serial killer. Take all the police weapons away. They need to learn to use words. Not guns. I don’t want to pay welfare so these serial killers can raise more serial killers. No thanks. Dorner was the man! Those guys are demon nazi police.
Tomorrow evening, Thursday the 25th, 6pm, will be Anaheim’s first POLICE REVIEW BOARD meeting since the Arbery/Taylor/Floyd killings, and since most of us became aware of Daniel Ramirez’ killing (the fourth by APD officer Nick “Backshot” Bennallack.)
I’m still waiting to hear the details of how this meeting will work, and how the public can participate. It won’t be in person because of CoVid. But we can all SUBMIT E-MAIL COMMENTS prb@anaheim.net.
I’m going to send one demanding the firing of repeat killer cops STARTING with Bennallack (they say he is on “paid administrative leave” since last February, and they won’t say why, or if something ELSE happened in February.)
And also the BANNING of the CAROTID HOLD that killed Vincent Valenzuela. (Right now, the “stranglehold” and “chokehold” are banned, but Chief Cisneros told the Council last night that he only “SUSPENDED” the carotid hold. Let’s ban it as many other cities have.
Write your e-mails! The meeting is tomorrow at 6.
Here’s the info – will be a Zoom meeting at 6! https://www.facebook.com/…/a.1746…/10160323024377925/…
The Police Review Board, our civilian oversight board for Anaheim Police, will hold its monthly meeting tomorrow, June 25 via Zoom at 6 p.m.
We welcome all to share their thoughts, listen and get involved in shaping community policing in Anaheim.
You can participate by:
*Joining the video meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86095232500
*Calling in: (669) 900-6833 (more phone options on the website)
*Submitting written comments to prb@anaheim.net
More information at Anaheim.net/PRB.
If that officer would’ve harmed MY child, no one would have to worry about him getting fired. He’d be a cadaverous mf!
Police is NOT GOING TO BE DEFUNDED or DISBANDED. THATS SOMETHING THAT IDIOT IN THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE RUSSIANS WANT YOU TO BELIEVE. People who believe also believe that really need to get back in touch with reality
Your comments on Steen Thomas Parker are incorrect. You state that The Patch (whatever that is, not relevant) got his age wrong at 43 when is was “actually” 65. His correct age WAS 43, so The Patch was right. The picture you have is of the victim’s father. Get it right
I think it is ironic that Officer ♀️ Nick Bellasnos (whatever his name is) was the one officer who yelled gun and fired his M-4 Rifle. He saw a bulge in his back waist. He also shot the kid in buttocks & back of the head which is a violation in most large metropolitan police departments, especially since the “suspect” did not even fire at the officer. This cop has gotten away with multiple murders and will continue to kill. We need police or else there would be anarchy and who would you call when a child is being beaten?
I am a 26 year Veteran of the U.S. Military and TRUST me not ALL VETERANS are good. We had a Staff Sergeant who was raping his step-daughter since she was 7 until he was caught on her 18 year birthday. I would have loved to kill this dude but never had the opportunity. So , there is evil in any occupation
Daniel DID do drugs. Report below shows he had METH in his system and an extensive criminal history that included violence and theft.
https://orangecountyda.org/wp-content/uploads/investigation-letters/Ramirez%20SA%2019-007%20FINAL%20August%206%202020.pdf
So, good thing he was killed, you’re saying?