On a small white table outside a Santa Ana furniture store, next to a stack of vanilla-flavored chonca pan dulces, religious candles surround three framed photographs of a smiling young Latino man.
Taped above one those photos is a simple request:
“Justicia para Noe Rodriguez.”
Justice for Noe Rodriguez.
That goal, and the man, remain at the center of a dispute that still roils Santa Ana a year after Rodriguez’s death.
Some basic facts about the shooting are publicly available and not in dispute.
Rodriguez, a 31-year-old husband and father from Santa Ana, was fatally shot by two Santa Ana police officers on Dec. 1, 2024, near the spot of what is now his makeshift memorial. His widow says Rodriguez struggled with his mental health, and that in recent years his problems had become severe enough that at the time of his death he was living with his mother, away from their family, at her request.
But at least some other details about the shooting – which remains under investigation – still prompt questions.
Police say that before they shot him, Rodriguez was brandishing what appeared to be a weapon, possibly a long gun, that they later determined to be a toy replica. Police also say they warned Rodriguez three times to drop what they believed to be a gun before opening fire, though they did so in English and only later learned that the language Rodriguez understood was Spanish.
It’s unclear when the California Department of Justice will issue a final report on the incident, and the agency did not respond to requests for comment. It’s not known if the police involved will be cleared for preventing what might have become a mass shooting, or if the agency will take the rare step of recommending charges. It’s also not clear what strategy the city will use as it fights the wrongful death claim filed by Rodriguez’s family.
What is known is this: At least some in Santa Ana view the tragedy as part of a grim pattern. In their eyes, Rodriguez was yet another local, unarmed man shot dead by police.
His own world
As they gathered near Rodriguez’s memorial on a dry Monday, Dec. 1, a group of women from a Catholic parish in Garden Grove recited a prayer for Erika Armenta and her two daughters, ages 7 and 9. The prayer was their offering in a vigil marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting.
“In these situations, there should be spiritual support. It’s very important. Think of how devastated and drained those families are,” said Lupita Pulido, who was one of several women who turned out to offer spiritual support to Armenta and her daughters, and to pray for Rodriguez’s soul.
“You can bring justice to the world,” Pulido added. “But how are you going to help bring them that peace?”
The man they mourned – a former field worker – was vulnerable when he died.
Armenta explained, in Spanish, that over the previous five or six years Rodriguez had exhibited signs of schizophrenia, including hallucinations. Over time, she said, the incidents had grown increasingly severe until, finally, she’d asked him to move out of the family home.
She said she made that request even though she still loved Rodriguez. But his episodes, she added, “left him in his own world.”
The vigil for Rodriguez was organized by Community Service Organization (CSO) Orange County, a police accountability and immigrant justice group.
Since June, group members and other Santa Ana residents have gone public with questions about Rodriguez and the manner of his death, speaking at public meetings of the Santa Ana City Council and the city’s Police Oversight Commission. They’ve called for the firing of the two officers involved, more public transparency when it comes to police shootings, and updated policies regarding the release of information and body-camera footage after shootings and other critical incidents.
Santa Ana police have not directly addressed the public about those concerns. The department’s policy said it “ensures that officer-involved shootings and deaths are investigated in a thorough, fair and impartial manner.” Privately, police officials say they are reluctant to comment while an investigation – and a civil lawsuit – are proceeding.
The department has released basic information about the shooting.
Earlier this year, Santa Ana Police said Rodriguez was holding what appeared to be a rifle — later determined to be a toy gun — at the intersection of 1st Street and Broadway when he was killed. Shooting a man refusing to relinquish a weapon in public could be a way to prevent further violence and, as such, the incident could be justified.
But Rodriguez’s family doesn’t think that’s what happened. In a wrongful death lawsuit filed in September, naming the city and the department and at least two officers as defendants, the family’s lawyers describe the incident as an “execution-style shooting.”
The family and others note that Rodriguez’s death is just one of several controversial shootings in recent years involving police and people living in or visiting Santa Ana.
In 2021, following a car chase, Anaheim police fatally shot Brandon Lopez in Santa Ana.
Like the Santa Ana police did in the Rodriguez case, Anaheim police said at the time that they believed Lopez to be armed, though he later was shown to be unarmed. And, like the Rodriguez case, Lopez’s family later said he was suffering from mental health woes.
Lopez’s family, like Rodriguez’s, later accused police of using excessive force. Lopez’s cousin, Santa Ana Councilmember Johnathan Hernandez, was present during the shooting and has criticized police for failing to de-escalate what he believed was a preventable death.
And in January, February and April of this year, Santa Ana police were involved in separate shootings that left two people dead and a third in critical condition. It’s unclear if investigations into those incidents are complete. Since 2020, police in Santa Ana have been involved in between one and three shootings per year, which federal data suggests isn’t unusual for a city with 310,000 residents.
But hard numbers don’t always lead to trust. And, according to some community members, the ongoing tug of war between police and some residents about Rodriguez’s death reflects long-standing questions about transparency and police accountability in Santa Ana.
“Noe’s family and their attorneys have pleaded for access to the police report – and received nothing,” wrote community activists David Pulido and Bulmaro Vicente in a joint commentary for The Register in May, several months after the shooting.
“The family’s calls for truth and accountability have been met with silence from the Santa Ana Police Department. The deaths of Noe and Jose (one of the suspects who was shot by police earlier this year) have left behind devastated families and communities still asking: Why has nothing changed?”
Rodríguez was shot just seconds after officers issued commands in English — a language that his family and their attorneys say he did not understand. The family argues that the officers failed to properly assess the situation and instead resorted to deadly force almost immediately. The family’s also contends that Rodríguez was not threatening police or the public, and that he didn’t point the toy gun at officers.
Police leaders – who say they cannot comment because of the investigation and litigation – presumably would note that the Rodriguez’s language issue might not have been obvious, and they might raise questions about the other allegations, such as where Rodriguez pointed the toy that appeared to be a gun.
The lawsuit alleges the officers were near their patrol car, 50 to 60 feet away from Rodriguez, when they fired approximately 30 shots and then handcuffed him as he lay on the ground. The complaint also states that after being shot, Rodríguez was left “immobile, bleeding profusely, and in obvious and critical need of emergency medical care and treatment.” Yet, the lawsuit alleges, the officers “did not timely summon medical care or permit medical personnel to treat” him.
In early January, the Santa Ana Police Department released a critical incident community briefing regarding the shooting. At the time, police said officers responded to a call about a man with a beard or mustache wearing a blue jumpsuit and carrying a black shotgun while walking near 1st and Spurgeon Street. Officers received an additional call reporting that a man had been seen loading a gun.
A portion of the footage from a body camera worn by one of the officers shows Rodriguez standing against a wall near the furniture store, holding what resembles a long shotgun. He does not appear to point the (toy) gun toward either officer and remains almost motionless as one of them issues verbal commands. Within moments, a barrage of gunfire can be heard, and Rodriguez collapses to the ground, limp.
Santa Ana Police Officer Natalia Garcia said in the January video briefing that officers requested additional backup. Following the shooting, police said Rodriguez was unresponsive to verbal commands. Because he remained in close proximity to what they believed was a shotgun, officers then fired a 40mm less-lethal launcher at him. As he lay on the ground, unresponsive, police handcuffed him even as another officer directed a colleague to begin CPR.
Garcia said police retrieved a short-barrel pump-action shotgun replica from the scene. Critically, it was only later that they determined it was a replica — information that, according to police, could only be confirmed after the shooting.
Details linked to the incident — including supplemental photo evidence of the toy gun, the coroner’s report, a full video of the police bodycam footage, or the time it took for ambulance services to arrive – have not been made available to the public.
On Monday, Dec. 1, Santa Ana Police Chief Robert Rodriguez said the department could not yet provide a comment on the incident due to the active investigation and external review.
“We must be extremely careful not to provide any information that could be interpreted as connected to that incident or that could compromise the integrity of the process,” Rodriguez wrote via email, adding that even general information presented under this context could be misinterpreted as commentary on an active investigation.
“To protect the investigation and the rights of all involved, we will not be providing additional details or responding to questions related to training, policies, or potential policy considerations until all investigative processes have concluded.”
Santa Ana Police Officers Association spokesperson Claudio Gallegos said in a statement: “The officers are entitled to due process and a thorough investigation that focuses on the facts, not insinuations and implicit biases.”
Couldn’t imagine it was him
The Santa Ana police union has accused Community Service Organization OC of being “pro-criminal,” saying the group “hijacked this tragic situation” and disrupted the lives of the officers and their families “in their search for social media clout.”
Department spokesperson Gallegos, who serves as the political director for the Santa Ana Police Officers Association, added in his statement that the officers “did their job,” and that the union is “confident all investigations will show they acted properly and within policy.”
Body camera footage, obtained recently by Community Service Organization, shows the confrontation from the point of view of one of the involved officers.
In the video, one officer is shown driving a Santa Ana PD patrol car to within a few feet of the Casa Linda furniture store. After he opens the door, he steps partially out of the vehicle, with a gun raised and pointed in the direction of Rodriguez, who is in frame for a few seconds. About 10 seconds after he’s exited the vehicle, the officer is heard saying, “Drop your gun or you’ll be shot,” repeating the order three times. When Rodriguez fails to respond, the video indicates 18 rounds were fired in rapid succession, and that officer’s partner begins firing moments later.
Armenta said she learned about Rodriguez’s death a day after the shooting.
She said several men, some dressed in suits, knocked at her front door and identified themselves as Santa Ana Police detectives. She said they began questioning her about Rodriguez, asking what he was like and how he behaved. But, she said, they did not initially explain why they wanted that information or provide additional clarity.
It wasn’t until after they’d finished with those questions that they told her Rodriguez was dead.
Armenta said they held up a photo ID and asked, “‘Do you recognize him? Is this Noe?’ And I said, ‘Yes, he’s my husband.’
“Then they asked, ‘If he came to your house, would you open the door for him? Would you let him sit at your table?’ And I said, ‘Yes, he’s the father of my daughters. I would have no reason to deny him access to my home.’
“After that, they told me, ‘There was a shootout, and he lost his life.’
“I had seen the news online, but I never imagined it was my husband.”
She said detectives did not answer any additional questions about the case, including why they described the confrontation as a shootout when news reports stated he was holding a toy gun that could not fire bullets. Detectives told her the results of the investigation would be released in a year.
“It’s been a year now, and still nothing,” said Armenta.