Los Banos police release the names of the officers involved in deadly shooting

Los Banos police on Friday released the names of the two officers involved in the deadly shooting of a man who appeared to be armed earlier this month.

The officers were identified by the department as Luis Castellanos Jr. and Omar Mondragon. Castellanos has been a police officer in Los Banos for four years while Mondragon has been a police officer for about a year and a half.

Cmdr. Jason Hedden said both men worked as community service officers at the Los Banos jail before becoming street cops.

Castellanos was identified as the officer who opened fire on Salome Ramirez, a 34-year-old Los Banos man with a minor criminal record and, according to police, a history of acting “belligerent” and “aggressive” with officers. Hedden on Friday confirmed that, at nearly the same time that Castellanos fired his gun, the other officer, Mondragon, fired his Taser stun-gun at Ramirez.

Both men on Friday remained on paid administrative leave, a standard procedure in all officer-involved shootings, Hedden confirmed.

Police on July 11 were called to investigate reports of a man with a gun in the area of the Los Banos Rail Trail, near G and Seventh Streets.

The officers spoke with Ramirez at the scene and he acknowledged having a weapon tucked into the waistline of his shorts, Police Chief Gary Brizzee has said.

But Ramirez didn’t place his hands in the air and he did not get down onto his knees when instructed to do so by the officers, Brizzee said.

“Suddenly the man lifts up his shirt with one hand and he retrieves the firearm, the handgun, and begins to withdraw it from his waistline,” Brizzee told reporters last week at a news conference.

That’s when Castellanos fired one shot from his weapon, striking Ramirez in the abdomen. Hedden said Mondragon fired his Taser stun-gun “almost simultaneously” with Castellanos opening fire.

“The officers followed training in deploying the two separate force options,” police said in a statement released Friday.

Police later learned the object tucked into Ramirez’s waistline was a replica firearm.

The officer-involved shooting remains under investigation by the Los Banos Police Department. The Merced County District Attorney’s Office will conduct an independent review, a standard investigation in officer-involved shootings.

Mondragon was one of three Los Banos police officers who made headlines last year when they rushed into a burning home to rescue a 5-year-old boy and an elderly woman. Mondragon and the two other officers later were honored as heroes by city leaders.