The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has released the body camera footage of the September 7 shooting in Lancaster, and the footage backs the deputies' account step by step: Derek Barrientos had his estranged wife in a headlock with a handgun, ignored repeated orders to drop it, pointed the gun at her, at himself and at the deputies, and was shot after he raised it toward the officers. His wife walked away unharmed.
The call came in at about 9:46 on the morning of Sunday, September 7, 2026: a domestic violence incident, a man with a gun, in the 44000 block of 15th Street West in Lancaster. The caller said the man, the victim's ex-husband, was trying to force her into a vehicle. Deputies found Barrientos outside the home, his arm wrapped around the woman's neck, a handgun in his hand, arguing with her.
The bodycam video shows what happened next. Deputies ordered him again and again to put the gun down, and warned him plainly that if he did not, he would be shot. He did not comply. One deputy can be heard saying that the suspect had pointed the gun at him. Still holding the woman while seated on the ground, Barrientos raised the gun toward the deputies, and a deputy fired. As the others closed in to reach the woman and secure the weapon, more shots were fired. The department's written statement from that day records the sequence in its own words: "When the suspect pointed his handgun and fired at deputies, a deputy involved shooting occurred."
Deputies then rendered medical aid to the man they had just shot. Los Angeles County Fire Department personnel transported Barrientos to a local hospital, where he was listed in stable condition. His estranged wife was not physically injured, and no deputy was injured. At the scene, deputies recovered the weapon: a 9mm semiautomatic handgun with a loaded magazine.
The shooting is being investigated by the Sheriff's Homicide Bureau, under Lieutenant Steve De Jong, and the investigation remains ongoing; the department has released no further details about Barrientos or what brought him to the house that morning. What the public now has is the evidence itself, released by the department: the orders, the warnings, the raised gun, and a hostage who came out of it alive. Anyone with information about the incident can contact the Homicide Bureau at 323-890-5500, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at (800) 222-TIPS.
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