Prince William County police say they shot and killed a 22-year-old man who was experiencing an apparent mental health crisis Thursday morning. Police say after hours of trying to resolve the situation, the man pointed a gun at officers and a sniper shot and killed him.
Friends of the victim said they were with him just a day earlier and everything had seemed fine, but they said they knew he struggled with his mental health and had recently refused to seek professional help.
The friends said that once police explained why they shot at their friend, they understood why this crisis negotiation turned deadly.
A family member from out of state reported concerns about Gabe Ramirez at 8:21 p.m., police said. Officers first looked for him at his home on Caledonia Circle in Woodbridge, then found found at an acquaintance's home on Bromley Court.
Early Thursday morning, police and neighbors filled the street where Ramirez was experiencing a mental health crisis behind a townhouse in the Lake Ridge neighborhood. Neighbors say they heard him screaming all night and into the morning.
"Yelling all night .... 'Leave me alone; get out of here,'" neighbor Patrick Valdez said.
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Another neighbor, Tara Jennings, said she heard him say, "'Please leave; please leave.' .... Over and over again, 'you're scaring me; you're scaring me.'"
"So there was obviously a lot of damage and pain that he was going through," Valdez said.
Police say Ramirez had a handgun and was threatening to hurt himself.
Prince William County's SWAT team responded, and the Crisis Negotiation Unit and a Community Services clinician attempted for hours to get Ramirez to surrender.
Because of the gun, Prince William County Police Chief Peter Newsham said they couldn't send in one of their department's mental health crisis clinicians.
"This is not a situation where we could have a clinician be approaching this person," Newsham said. "It was too dangerous."
Video from a neighbor early Thursday morning shows Ramirez's father at the scene as weapons specialists and crisis negotiators surrounded the 22-year-old, with rifles perched on stands to protect the neighborhood.
"The individual came to the fence line and he pointed the weapon at the officers with the townhouses in their backdrop, presenting a danger not only to the officers but others who may have been in those homes," Newsham said. "And unfortunately, officers fired and the young man lost his life."
Jennings said she heard the gunshot about 5:30 a.m.
"And then we thought it was still the kid yelling and pleading, but I think it was the father that was in the front of the house," she said.
Neighbors say that after the sound of the gunshot, Ramirez's father screamed at police, pleading with them to tell him what happened.
"Finally, at 6:45 a.m., an officer came and told the father that his son was pronounced dead," Valdez said. ".... It was really tough, especially tough to watch the father just break down and cry."
Early Thursday afternoon, the 22-year-old's friends showed up. They say he was funny, loving, trustworthy and had struggled with his mental health his entire life.
"He's been on the downside for probably the past about month," said one of Ramirez's friends, Zack Warner. "I told him he'd been needing to get help, and it was hard for him to do that."
Prince William County police say they made several attempts to communicate with Ramirez through his family and friends over a cellphone, but police say every technique they tried seemed to agitate him.
"We lost a loved one today, a family member, and that will never be forgotten," Warner said.
Chief Newsham has asked an outside regional team of detectives to investigate the shooting. Those findings will be given to the county prosecutor, who will determine if the shooting was justified or if criminal charges against the officer are appropriate.
