14 Nov East County Residents Rally Outside Brentwood City Hall, Call for ‘Justice for Yolanda’

A man holds a sign reading “Justice for Yolanda” as he enters the Brentwood City Hall council chambers after attending a rally before Wednesday’s City Council. Yolanda Ramirez died in September after being detained by police.

Story and photos by Denis Perez-Bravo

Nearly two months after the death of Yolanda Ramirez while in Brentwood police custody, about 100 people gathered outside Brentwood City Hall on Nov. 12 for a rally and press conference held to coincide with a City Council meeting.

Community members, activists and families affected by police violence listened to speakers before crowding into council chambers. Some delivered public comments while others raised signs reading “Justice for Yolanda.”

Yolanda’s husband, Rudy Ramirez, and her oldest son, Ricardo “Rich” Ramirez, spoke about their loss, condemning what they described as fatal violence by Brentwood police and recalling their final moments with her.

“I feel lonely,” Rudy told the crowd. “For yelling at her sister or arguing with her sister, she did not deserve to die for that.”

Rudy said he now wanders around his home feeling lost, the bed “too big” and the house emptier without his wife of 55 years.

He remembered feeling “lucky” to have embraced her the day before the incident.

“She came out of the bedroom and was walking down the hallway. I was on the couch and I told her, ‘Babe, I don’t think we’ve hugged in a little bit, you know?’” he said. “So we stood there and hugged.”

 

The next morning, as they were drinking coffee, Yolanda got up to pick up her brother Reuben from her sister’s house.

“So we walked to the door, and I hugged her and kissed her again. And I said, ‘I’ll see you in a little bit,’” Rudy said.

She never returned home. In her place, Rudy said, came a fight for justice.

His grief, he said, quickly blended with confusion and anger after learning what happened.

After police were called to a family home over a civil dispute, Yolanda Ramirez was detained and put into the back of a patrol car.

 

Family attorney Melissa Nold told those at the rally that police forced Yolanda onto her knees while handcuffed. Photos posted by the family show bruising on her wrists that they say was caused by improperly applied handcuffs.

Police have not released body camera footage, but Nold said multiple witnesses interviewed by her private investigator said officers “roughhoused” the 72-year-old.

“And the worst part is that when they were going to go put her into the police car, [witnesses] reported that the officer struck her head,” Nold said.

“They dragged her in the car, tossed her in the car like trash. They dragged her into the car, and then they left her there.”

Nold said witnesses reported Yolanda was left in the patrol vehicle for up to 40 minutes without medical attention.

“(Police) weren’t checking on this elder. And they know that she was injured. She was crying out in pain,” Nold said.

In a statement, Brentwood police said officers responded to a family dispute on Sept. 26 and placed 72-year-old Yolanda Ramirez under a citizen’s arrest at the request of a family member.

The family later denied this, Nold said.

In the statement, police said she attempted to flee before being detained. But Nold said witnesses say she was compliant.

The statement continues, saying once Ramirez was secured in a patrol car, she appeared to have a medical issue, prompting officers to call for an ambulance. She was released from custody and taken to a hospital, where her condition worsened over the following days.

Nold said more than a dozen witnesses came forward despite fear of retaliation, believing it was important to speak out about violence against a community elder.

She said witness accounts support the claim that Yolanda was handcuffed too tight, struck in the head, shoved in the police car and left unattended for up to 40 minutes and that is what attributed to her death.

Families who have lost loved ones to police violence also stood with the Ramirez family.

 

Robert Collins and Cassandra Quninto-Collins, the parents of Angelo Quinto, attended the rally and shared their experience. Their son died in 2020 after Antioch Police responded to a mental health crisis call at their home.

“I think the lesson here is that it happens much more often,” Collins told the crowd. “Now, we are going to probably witness a cover-up instead of finding answers and finding solutions.”

The Quinto family settled with the city for $7.5 million in May 2024.

The family has helped create police reforms in Antioch, including the creation of a mental health crisis response team, a ban on restraint asphyxia, and the adoption of police body cameras.

They have also criticized the original autopsy of their son, which cited “excited delirium,” a term now outlawed in California as an official cause of death through legislation they championed.

 

Another Antioch resident affected by police violence, Kathryn Wade, also spoke in support of the Ramirez family.

“I want to just encourage the family today because being a part of this club is not a good feeling,” Wade said.

“When someone does something to you, you’re able to call the police,” she said, “supposedly to get help. But in many cases, you can’t even do that because the police are the ones causing the problems, beating and killing people in our community.”

 

Antioch police dragged Wade’s son, 22-year-old Malad Baldwin, from her parked car in 2014 and beat him until he lost consciousness, according to a lawsuit later settled without officers admitting wrongdoing. She said the violence left him depressed, anxious and unable to keep a job, and that repeated encounters with Antioch Police in the years that followed felt like harassment. Baldwin died by suicide in 2020, and Wade blames the department.

In 2023, racist, homophobic, violent and sexist text messages exchanged by Antioch officers were released publicly, and Baldwin was mentioned in them.

Wade said the lack of information following police incidents involving use of force leaves families devastated and searching for answers.

“I found out one thing about fighting this system. When you make noise, they listen,” Wade said.