Police Detail Arrest Of Suspect In Officer’s Killing

A fingerprint led investigators to a career criminal suspected of ambushing and gunning down a Riverside police officer in a park, a detective said today.

Earl Ellis Green was arrested Tuesday night on suspicion of murder and parole violations in connection with the shooting death Sunday of Officer Ryan P. Bonaminio.

The Riverside County District Attorney’s Office is expected to file charges by Monday against the 44-year-old suspect, who is being held without bail at the Robert Presley jail in Riverside.

District Attorney Rod Pacheco is personally reviewing the case, along with a team of veteran prosecutors, said Assistant District Attorney Chuck Hughes.

According to Riverside police Detective Ron Sanfilippo, a fingerprint that was lifted from the stolen big rig that triggered the confrontation resulting in Bonaminio’s death belonged to Green.

Sanfilippo told reporters during a news briefing outside the police department’s Orange Street station that the print was processed and a possible match was found Tuesday afternoon on a national crime information database.

Investigators located Green and arrested him and his girlfriend outside a Target store in the 3300 block of Arlington Avenue around 8 p.m. Tuesday. The woman was released after being questioned.

Sanfilippo said three search warrants were executed at locations throughout Riverside County, including the suspect’s Rubidoux residence. The detective said Bonaminio’s police-issued sidearm was located during one search, though he wouldn’t specify where.

“It’s possibly the gun that was used against the officer,” Sanfilippo said.

At least three rounds had been fired from the pistol, according to police Chief Sergio Diaz.

Investigators wouldn’t disclose how many times Bonaminio was shot.

“I do believe he was ambushed,” Diaz said, adding that only a seasoned criminal would have the sophistication to “lead an officer down a path to hurt him and disarm him.”

Court records show that Green has more than a dozen convictions, including for battery on a police officer in 1990.

His latest conviction, in 2007, was for vandalism, and he could have gotten three years in prison, but a judge dismissed some prior convictions in considering his sentence, documents showed.

“We do have a revolving-door system of criminal justice,” Diaz said. “There’s very little discussion about what it costs to let (convicts) out. Violent crime is a way of life for many in our country.”

Green was not a three-striker. According to Hughes, state law requires that a strike be counted only when a person is convicted of a “violent or serious felony.”

The slain officer’s father, Joe Bonaminio, said he wasn’t surprised that his son’s suspected killer has a long rap sheet.

“He shouldn’t have been on the street,” Bonaminio said. “But how many convicts do you think are out on the street today?”

Bonaminio said he was proud of his son and wanted justice for him.

The 27-year-old patrolman was trying to catch a suspect driving a big rig that had been involved in a fender-bender in the area of Market Street and the Moreno Valley (60) Freeway around 9:50 p.m. Sunday.

Bonaminio apparently had no idea the rig had been stolen minutes earlier from a Rubidoux rental facility and chased the truck thief when the man stopped at the entrance to Fairmount Park and bolted on foot, according to investigators.

A portion of the action was captured on the patrol vehicle’s dash camera. The video did not reveal what happened in the park — which was witnessed by at least one person — but showed a slender black man about 6 feet tall, wearing dark clothes and a baseball cap, returning to the truck and driving away.

The vehicle was returned to the business from which it was stolen.

Bonaminio was pronounced dead less than 30 minutes later at Riverside Community Hospital.

The Riverside resident, who graduated from Ramona High School in 2000, served in the U.S. Army, completing two tours in Iraq with a military police unit. He joined the Riverside police force in 2006.

Rewards totaling nearly $500,000 were posted for the capture of the person responsible for killing him.

“The loss of Ryan leaves a hole in this department, and this arrest doesn’t fill that hole,” Assistant Riverside Police Chief Chris Vicino told City News Service. “What the arrest did for us is lower the level of intensity. But the pain never goes away. I’m not sure it should.”