The Alexandria Police Department today (Wednesday) released body camera footage from a fatal shooting of a homicide suspect in the city’s West End last month.
Police Chief Tarrick McGuire also publicly disclosed the names of the victim as 27-year-old Emily Ramirez and the suspect, her boyfriend, 38-year-old Hector Amaya. According to APD, Amaya allegedly shot Ramirez multiple times with a handgun before charging at police and being shot and killed by two APD officers. McGuire characterized the incident as a domestic violence situation and described Ramirez as a T.C. Williams High School graduate and beloved Alexandrian.
The May 18 body camera video begins with audio of a 911 call made by Amaya’s sister, who said Ramirez had been shot multiple times and had wounds on her stomach. Officers arrived at 27 Canterbury Square with guns drawn, announced themselves and evacuated Amaya’s mother and sister from the apartment. They found Amaya barricaded in the bedroom with Ramirez and ordered him multiple times to come out with his hands up.
An officer then entered the apartment, ordered Amaya to come out and fired his service weapon twice into the bedroom. The officer said the suspect had made a “furtive gesture.”
McGuire defined a “furtive gesture” as a “deliberate movement … that an objectively reasonable officer could interpret as an attempt to conceal, retrieve or access, or dispose of a weapon.”
The officer retreated outside the apartment door, and Amaya — concealing his hands by holding a small black bag in front of him — charged out of the bedroom and was shot multiple times as he reached the front door. Officers then went into the bedroom and found Ramirez dead from multiple gunshots.
The first call came in at 4:05 a.m., and police were outside the apartment with guns drawn at 4:11 a.m., according to the body camera footage. Police arrived to find the front door open. Shots were fired at 4:13 a.m. and 4:14 a.m., and scanner traffic indicated the suspect was shot at 4:15 a.m.
The officers involved were placed on administrative leave after the incident, which remains under investigation by the Northern Virginia Critical Incident Review Team, the APD Office of Professional Responsibility and Independent Police Auditor Ameratu Kamara.
McGuire could not confirm the trajectory of the two initial shots fired into the bedroom and said the question will be answered in the ongoing investigations. He also confirmed that Ramirez lived at the apartment with Amaya.
The Alexandria Sexual Assault Center and Domestic Violence Program is available 24/7 at 703-746-4911 to anyone experiencing domestic violence or sexual assault.
“If you are a victim of domestic violence, there are resources available to you, not only by our police department but by the greater community,” McGuire said.
This story has been updated with a link to APD’s body camera video.
