Orange, Calif. –– Upon news and eyewitness video yesterday of Orange County Sheriff’s Department officer shooting and murder of Kurt Andras Reinhold in San Clemente, Democratic Party of Orange County Chair Ada Briceño released the following statement:
“Yesterday’s tragic murder of Kurt Andres Reinhold at the hands of Sheriff’s Deputies fills me with sadness and outrage. My heart goes out to Kurt Reinhold, his family, and to all Orange County communities impacted by this violence.
I urge the Orange County District Attorney’s office and Orange County Sheriff’s Department to provide complete transparency: Release all available video, including surveillance footage. It is disturbing that the public is forced to get basic facts about this violent incident from bystander videos on social media, instead of our taxpayer-funded law enforcement officers.
In light of the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many others across the nation and here in Orange County, millions of people have been calling for reform for months. We need Sheriff Don Barnes to listen to this outcry. We call on Sheriff Barnes to tell the public exactly what his department has done to avoid escalating what should be nonviolent police encounters into deadly shootings.
With the lack of charges in Breonna Taylor’s murder sparking heartbreak and anguish, it is clear that our nation is crying out for justice. Yesterday’s tragic death is further proof that Orange County is not immune to the moral dilemma before us. In this painful moment, we must seek complete transparency, and reaffirm our commitment to fulfilling our nation’s promise of equal justice under the law.”
This incident comes on the heels of confirmation of a Sheriff’s deputy giving a false police report to a grand jury, and another shooting by the Orange County Sheriff’s department in Stanton.
About the Democratic Party of Orange County
Once famously known as “Reagan country,” after President Reagan called Orange County the place where “all good Republicans go to die,” Orange County is rapidly shifting from a formerly agrarian Republican stronghold into a highly diverse Democratic-majority metropolis.
Chair Ada Briceno, a longtime labor organizer, Co-President of UNITE HERE Local 11, and recently elected Democratic National Committee member, is the first immigrant and second Latina to lead the Democratic Party of Orange County. Her executive leadership team includes Latino, Vietnamese, millennial, and LGBT representation.
Democrats swept all seven Congressional seats in Orange County in 2018. Less than a year later, Democrats overtook countywide voter registration to become the region’s leading political party. Today, OC Democrats have gained more than a 2-point voter advantage over the GOP.
Orange County is the nation’s sixth largest county, with 3.2 million residents and more than half a million registered Democratic voters.
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 24, 2020
Media Contact: Rachel Potucek, rachel@ocdemocrats.org