A 27-year-old man whose fatal shooting by a Lancaster City police officer prompted a protest that turned destructive Sunday night was awaiting trial on charges that he had stabbed four people, including a teenager, in 2019.
Ricardo Munoz was free on bail at the time of his death and was facing four counts of aggravated assault for the March 24, 2019 stabbings that police said stemmed from a fight in the 500 block of North Queen Street.
An officer answering a domestic disturbance call shot and killed Munoz around 4:15 p.m. Sunday afternoon in a brief but violent encounter in the 300 block of Laurel Street. Police body camera video released by investigators shows the officer firing as Munoz charged at him with what appears to be a large knife in his raised right hand.
The video shows Munoz rushing out of a row home at the officer, who retreats and then fires as Munoz chases him.
Elizabeth Low, the public defender who was representing Munoz in the 2019 case, said she could not comment beyond stating that his trial on those charges was scheduled to begin Oct. 12. Court records show Munoz originally was held in prison in lieu of $1 million bail in that case but was released in this past June when his bail was changed to nonmonetary status.
Police said all four people injured in the March 2019 stabbing incident required hospitalization. They said Munoz was holding a knife when they arrived at the scene and that he held it to his throat when he saw them.
He refused to drop the knife, tried to climb over a handrail and had to be tased before he was subdued, police said. They said those injured in the incident in a home were a 16-year-old boy, a 22-year-old woman and two 26-year-old men. The teen and two of the adults are related.
Records show also that Munoz was admitted to the county’s Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition program for a 2-year term in February 2016 after being charged by city police with stalking, defiant trespass and harassment for an incident in May 2015.
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