UPDATE, MAY 26, 5:33 P.M.: The Orange County District Attorney’s office today announced these charges against Alma Ramirez: one felony count of attempted carjacking, one felony count of second degree robbery, three felony counts of aggravated assault, one felony count of attempted second degree burglary, and two felony counts of elder and dependent adult abuse with sentencing enhancement allegations for the personal use of a knife. If convicted, she could get up to 16 years and six months in state prison, says the agency, adding that she has a continued arraignment Friday at 8:30 a.m.
Meanwhile, anyone with information about the officer-involved shooting involving Ramirez is asked to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Dina Mauger at 714.664.3960. Per protocol, the OCDA investigates local officer-involved shootings and later issues a report.
ORIGINAL POST, MAY 25, 12:50 P.M.: A 27-year-old woman is being treated at a local hospital after being shot by Santa Ana Police following a wild rampage Tuesday night that passersby caught on video.
Alma Ramirez is expected to be arrested and charged with carjacking and assault with a deadly weapon, according to a Santa Ana Police Department advisory.
Officers were sent to the area of 5th Street and Mountain View around 7:50 p.m. Tuesday regarding a woman with large butcher knife trying to stab a male, police say.
As cops were on their way there, the woman with a knife tried to carjack an elderly couple, and she stabbed the vehicle’s owner in the process, police say.
Next came a confrontation with two other men, although neither was injured, police say.
The woman then tried to break into a business in the 4400 block of West Fifth Street. But next she jumped on a bike—it’s unclear who it belongs to—and rode away while waving the knife. Here’s a bit of that:
Officers arrived to find her leaving the scene on a bicycle—and still holding a knife in her hand, police say.
“That’s when the officers got there and they see her riding the bike, waving the knife,” Santa Ana Police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna told City News Service.
Police blocked off intersections as she kept pedaling east, but she was forced to stop when the bike’s chain fell off,”then she starts waving the large knife at a policeman,” Bertagna alleged.
She backed off, heading toward Cesar Chavez Campesino Park, where she allegedly began “advancing” on a man driving out of the park, Bertagna said.
It was in the 3300 block of West 5th Street, “where an officer-involved shooting occurred,” reads the police advisory.
Ramirez, a Santa Ana resident, was later identified as the woman who was shot.
“I don’t know if she was on drugs, or mentally ill or just a criminal, but that will all be sorted out in the investigation,” Bertagna said.
She was wounded in the lower torso and underwent surgery, but she’s expected to survive, Bertagna said.
Witnesses recorded video of the rampage down Fifth Street that has been posted online and appears to be going “viral,” according to Bertagna.
The elderly carjacking victim was treated at the scene and released.
