More than fourteen months after a Berkeley police officer shot Ricardo Gonzalez Ruiz during a standoff at his downtown apartment — leaving a bullet lodged in his skull and costing him the sight in one eye — a judge has ordered Ruiz freed from jail and admitted him to a two-year behavioral health diversion program that could ultimately see his eleven charges dismissed.

The June 17 ruling by Alameda County Superior Court Judge Elisa Della Piana resolves Ruiz's pretrial detention but leaves open a deeper question: the same court system that found — just eleven months ago — that Ruiz had no identifiable mental health diagnosis has now placed him in a mental health diversion track. What changed, and why, is sealed from the public record.

Ricardo Gonzalez Ruiz, 35, who posts online as "DJ Occult" and performs under the name "Rick Fuze," has been held at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin since April 22, 2025 — nine days after Berkeley police officers shot him during what department footage shows was a nearly hour-long standoff at his downtown apartment.

Officers had responded that morning to a report of a woman inside Ruiz's building screaming for help. Berkeleyside, which has covered the case extensively, reported that body camera footage captured Ruiz repeatedly threatening to shoot police and insisting he was being "swatted." He came outside carrying a shotgun and a high-powered air rifle. An officer fired. The only body camera pointed directly at Ruiz at that moment, Berkeley Police later acknowledged, had been "inadvertently deactivated."

Ruiz spent the nine days following the shooting hospitalized. He then entered Santa Rita, where he has remained ever since, unable to post $250,000 bail.

On Tuesday, Judge Della Piana admitted Ruiz to a behavioral health diversion program under California Penal Code § 1001.36 and ordered him released on his own recognizance, according to court records reviewed by Berkeleyside. His release is conditioned on GPS monitoring, strict law compliance, and entry into a residential behavioral health program. He was still in custody at Santa Rita as of Wednesday.

If Ruiz completes the two-year program without incident, the ten felony counts and one misdemeanor charge stemming from the April 2025 standoff — including charges that he threatened to shoot officers — could be dismissed entirely.

The ruling comes despite a significant wrinkle in the legal record. After Ruiz clashed with his original defense attorney, a different judge, Kimberly Colwell, had him undergo a psychological evaluation. Oakland-based court-appointed psychologist Marlin S. Griffith concluded, in a July 2025 report, that Ruiz "was not found to have a mental health diagnosis or condition" and was "mentally competent to stand trial." Griffith conducted the evaluation through medical records alone after Ruiz refused to meet with him in person.

Ruiz applied for diversion in January 2026. His petition — which would explain what, if anything, changed between Griffith's assessment and the application — is not publicly available under court rules.

Judge Della Piana's decision to grant diversion despite the earlier no-diagnosis finding is not inherently contradictory: California's behavioral health diversion statute allows for broader consideration than a single competency evaluation. But the gap between the two determinations remains unexplained in the public record, and Ruiz's public defender did not respond to a press inquiry.

Ruiz's case in Alameda County has had a separate, notable epilogue. In a distinct criminal trial in February 2026, he was acquitted of a misdemeanor assault charge stemming from a March 2025 incident: Ruiz had drawn a stun gun while counterprotesting an anti-Trump demonstration outside a Fourth Street Tesla dealership in Berkeley. A jury found him not guilty.

The question of police accountability for the standoff shooting itself — in particular, the deactivated body camera — has not been publicly resolved. Berkeley Police have not announced any discipline or findings related to the missing footage.

Ruiz's release date from Santa Rita and the location of any residential treatment were not disclosed in court records as of Wednesday, according to Berkeleyside.