05 Feb Game Nights and Mourning: A Family’s Fight After Yolanda Ramirez’s Death

Rich, left, and Rudy Ramirez are grieving and fighting for justice after the death of Yolanda Ramirez, their mother and wife, respectively.

Story and visuals by Denis Perez-Bravo

Laughter and smiles still surface at family dinners and game nights in the Ramirez home, but they do not come easily.

The joy Rudy Ramirez and his son, Rich Ramirez, feel when they gather with their brothers, nephews and grandchildren is overshadowed by the grief of losing their matriarch, Yolanda Ramirez, whose death they believe was caused by police violence.

Even so, they are determined to keep moving forward.

“We need to show them, as a family, that even though we’re in the midst of this tragedy, there is still love and kindness in this world,” Rudy said.

Rudy said he is grateful for his son. On recent game nights, Rich introduced Monopoly to the family.

With the games as a way to spend time together, they try to rekindle their love for one another and recharge their spirits for the legal and political fight ahead, Rudy said.

The family has had little time to grieve in private.

Much of its energy has gone into pressing the Brentwood Police Department and the Brentwood City Council for answers about what happened on Sept. 26, 2025, when Yolanda was detained by police officers outside her sister’s house.

That interaction with police sent her to the hospital where she later died on Oct. 3.

The Contra Costa Coroner’s office ruled the death was due to natural causes, despite visual bruises on her body.

A recent second autopsy requested by the family and funded through the Kaepernick Foundation’s Know Your Rights Camp Autopsy Initiative supports their claim that Yolanda’s death resulted from police violence.

The independent autopsy report ruled her death a homicide, citing multiple blunt-force injuries to her head and torso, as well as asphyxiation caused by police restraint.

“She was fine when she left the house that day, but she wasn’t fine when the police put their hands on her,” Rich said, “and then threw her in the back of that car like she was a criminal.”

Rich remembers his mother as a caring person, always wanting to be with her grandchildren. For Rudy, Yolanda was the love of his life, a caring person that helped save him from his alcohol and drug abuse.

Rudy, a Vietnam war veteran, struggled with his mental health after returning home.

“She stood there by me, helped me get through all of that,” Rudy said.

Now, all he has left are memories. He said he is thankful that they were able to make more happy ones than bad.

As Rudy and Rich flip through a photo album filled with moments of their lives, Rudy says he appreciates the ones that have Yolanda in them even more because usually she would be the one to snap the photos.

“So a lot of times, she was not in them. But she enjoyed capturing the moment,” Rudy said.

He shows the photos to his grandchildren, who love looking through them.

“Every time she sees a picture of my wife… she always goes … ‘Where’s Mama?” Rudy said, referring to one of their grandchildren wondering where her grandmother is.

Photos of the family line the living room. A tall glass-door cabinet has been turned into an altar, holding her belongings alongside pictures of her and of relatives.

Her sandals remain in front of the couch where she used to sit, just as she left them, Rudy said.

The father and son said they live with constant stress and try to keep their mental health up.

Rudy said the support they have received from community members and organizations has helped lift their spirits.

Still, he knows there is much left to do to hold the officers involved accountable.

The family has organized rallies at Brentwood City Hall, keeping public pressure on the city leaders.

On Jan. 1, the family continued their pursuit for justice when they filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city and several police officers.

On Jan. 6, during a closed session, the City Council voted 4-0, with one member absent, to authorize the city’s legal department to defend the lawsuit filed by the Ramirez family.

The City Council sent out a statement Jan. 7 saying it had instructed staff to release the police video footage of the incident no later than Feb. 28.

“That’s way past the 45 days,” Rich said.

Under California Assembly Bill 748, passed in 2019, agencies are required to release the recordings from body-worn camera within 45 days when an officer discharges a weapon or when use of force results in death or serious bodily injury.

The family is urging City Council members to call for a coroner’s inquest, which can only be requested by the sheriff’s office or a city council member.

For decades in Contra Costa County, a death involving law enforcement set in motion a coroner’s inquest automatically.

A civilian jury would hear evidence and decide how a person died, whether by natural causes, accident, suicide or at the hands of another.

This policy has since been scaled back.

In January 2025, the Contra Costa Police Chiefs Association amended its Law Enforcement Involved Fatal Incidents Protocol, reshaping how such deaths are reviewed.

Under the revised, two-page amendment, a process that once served as a routine layer of public oversight is now optional because it is left to the discretion of the coroner or to be requested by officials such as the attorney general, district attorney, sheriff, city prosecutor, city attorney or a police chief.

While hopeful, Rudy and Rich are skeptical a city official will speak up to request an inquest.

The district attorney’s office is currently investigating the case and announced in December 2025 that it had opened an inquiry.

Brentwood Police declined to comment due to the ongoing investigation.

“If there was something that clearly showed he was acting by policies and procedures… they would have dismissed it and said there’s nothing to see here,” Rudy said. “But they’re still investigating it — so that kind of gives me a little hope.”