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# Man to stand trial for officer’s shooting
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/man-to-stand-trial-for-officers-shooting/
- Published: 2006-04-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T17:39:47.000Z
- Author: Kevin Herrera
- Tags: Crime, Pico, #archive-import

*Second suspect not yet charged*

A suspected gang member charged with the attempted murder of an undercover Santa Monica Police officer will stand trial, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled Monday.

Judge Scott Millington found there was enough evidence to move forward with a trial and set an arraignment date of May 8 for German Michael Espindola, 20, a resident of Santa Monica. Espindola is expected to enter a plea of not guilty, according to his attorney, Al Fenster.

Espindola has been accused of shooting officer Walter Ramirez, a four-year veteran with the SMPD, who was hit in the wrist by gunfire after he and his partner tried to confront the occupants of a suspicious vehicle in the Pico neighborhood in February.

Espindola is charged with two counts of attempted, premeditated murder; two counts of assault with a firearm; one count of shooting at an occupied motor vehicle; and one count of unlawful firearm activity, according to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.

Espindola also is being prosecuted for attempted murder to further the activities of a criminal street gang, which automatically enhances any penalty if convicted. He is being held on $2.4 million bail.

“My client is totally innocent,” Fenster said. “They’ve got the wrong guy. The evidence is clear that (it was another) shooter.”

Another Santa Monica resident, Richard DeLa Cruz, 32, who was with Espindola during the shooting and was later arrested, has not been charged, the DA’s office said.

“It went as good as it could have. None of the charges were dropped,” said Frank Tavleman, the deputy district attorney who is prosecuting the case, regarding the preliminary hearing held Monday. During the hearing, both sides called multiple witnesses, including SMPD officers.

The shooting occurred at about 5 a.m. on Feb. 2, near the corner of 20th Street and Pico Boulevard. Officers immediately sealed off the area and conducted a search, locating Espindola and DeLa Cruz in an apartment building in the 1900 block of 17th Street near Santa Monica College. The department’s SWAT team was deployed and negotiated the surrender of the two men at approximately 6:15 a.m., according to police.

Officer Ramirez suffered a wound to his right wrist and was transported to UCLA Medical Center, where we was treated and released.

Shortly before the shooting, the suspects were observed acting suspiciously in the parking lot of the Ralph’s grocery store at Cloverfield and Olympic boulevards.

Officers in a marked patrol car notified Ramirez and his partner, who were in an undercover unit assigned to burglary suppression. They observed Espindola and DeLa Cruz drive off in a blue van and proceeded to follow them at a distance of roughly two blocks, according to police.

The officers lost sight of the suspects’ van around 18th Street and Pico Boulevard. As the officers drove south on 17th Street, they noticed the van parked in a driveway. As Ramirez drove closer, a suspect, believed to be Espindola, jumped from the passenger side of the van, raised a weapon and fired three rounds, one striking Ramirez as he tried to drive away from the scene, police said.

As Ramirez drove forward, one shot was fired. The second shot went through the passenger-side window and struck Ramirez. A third shot shattered the right rear window.

The officers didn’t return fire, police said.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 26, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/042606.pdf?ref=smdp.com)