FOOTHILL RANCH, ORANGE COUNTY (KNX) – The Orange County Sheriff’s Department released bodycam footage of a man who was shot in the head at Walmart in Foothill Ranch on Jan. 19.
It happened at the Towne Centre Drive location.
The video contains audio from the 911 call, body camera footage from three responding deputies, surveillance footage from Walmart, and then screenshots from the body camera.
In the 911 call, a loss prevention employee at Walmart reported there were two men shopping at the store with a fake receipt. The employee described one of the men as “5’8, Hispanic wearing all black with black hair” and the other as “white and bald with a patterned hat on and wearing cargo pants with a blue shirt.”
Footage from Deputy 1 inside the store shows that the loss prevention employee instead notifies them of a man and woman.
The employee tells deputies she saw the man had a fake receipt on his phone and there was “high-end merchandise in (the suspects’) carts.”
This leads to the deputy asking the loss prevention employee about whether she wanted to refuse service, which she agrees to do.
The deputies approach the man and woman. The man is the one the employee described to the 911 operator as wearing the blue shirt and patterned hat.
Deputy 2 tells them, “I don’t know what’s going on. I guess (the employees) are saying you guys have like stolen before or whatever, but (the employees) want you out of the store...”
The woman tells the deputy she’s never been to the store. The deputies reiterate that the couple needs to leave the store.
The man goes to follow the woman when he tells the officer he left something in his cart. He’s seen grabbing his phone.
As the two walk out, Deputy 2 tells the man “You’re like 40 years old and you’re still stealing? Get a job, let’s go.”
At that moment, another deputy standing by tells Deputy 2, “He’s got a knife.”
Deputy 2 asks where the knife is and tells the man “don’t reach for it,” and to get his hand off the knife.
The man apologizes before Deputy 2 tells the man to put his hands behind his back as the deputy goes to handcuff the man.
A struggle is seen and the deputies tell him multiple times to stop. The man calls for help, saying, “I’m not trying to do nothing.”
Body camera footage from Deputy 3 shows money on the ground as the man yells, “My money, my money, please I need my money!”
As the man is being held on the ground by deputies, a civilian is seen going to help the deputies.
Another deputy yelled “He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun! Shoot him, shoot him!”
A civilian standing by is heard chanting “Shoot him” until a shot is fired. From Deputy 3’s camera, it looks like a gun is in the suspect’s hand.
Deputies then look for the woman, who is then reported as having run out.
Footage from Deputy 3’s camera reveals an exchange between Deputy 3 and the woman prior to the man’s shooting, in which the woman tells the deputy, “I’m not running away from you.”
Deputy 3 then tells her “I don’t know what you have so don’t reach in your…” but he’s cut off by the woman saying, “I don’t have anything.” In the video, she’s not seen reaching for anything, but rather holding on to the strap of her cross body bag.
The male suspect, identified as 30-year-old Ernesto Paul Aguilar, is recovering from being shot in the head.
The woman in the video spoke with NBC Los Angeles, explaining that Aguilar is a friend of hers and that they were shopping for her. She told the outlet Aguilar had $1,000 in cash and was going to pay for the items in the cart.
She said she didn’t see her friend get shot because she’d left before the rest of the struggle occurred. She found out later he was in the hospital from getting shot in the head.
"I’m traumatized. Just thinking about Walmart makes me want to throw up. I will never step foot inside a Walmart ever again in my life," she said.
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