James "Jimmy" Hernandez (1967 — 25 September 1992) was a Los Angeles Police Department officer and part of the C.R.A.S.H. unit under Frank Tenpenny. He was killed in 1992 by Tenpenny's second-in-command Eddie Pulaski for having revealed the unit's corruption to the CIA.
Biography[]
James Hernandez was born to a Mexican-American family in Lennox, Los Angeles in 1967. His dream was to become a policeman and enforce the law, and he joined the Los Angeles Police Department in 1989; as a police officer, he mainly dealt with domestic abuse cases, and was once forced to resolve a difficult dispute where a man had struck his drug-addicted wife for letting their children starve. During his early years in the LAPD, he learned that the only type of crime in Los Angeles was gang crime, which encouraged him to join the Community Resources Against Street Hoodlums (C.R.A.S.H.) unit led by Frank Tenpenny and Eddie Pulaski in 1992. However, Tenpenny and Pulaski were highly corrupt, and in order to assure Hernandez's loyalty, forced him to shoot and kill Internal Affairs officer Ralph Pendelbury for looking into their malpractice. Hernandez initially refused, but after Tenpenny threatened to kill him too, he ultimately shot Pendelbury in the head and left his corpse in a secluded area of the docks. Afterwards, they pinned the murder on Grove Street Families member Carl Johnson, who had recently returned from New York City, and used that leverage over him to make him do their bidding. C.R.A.S.H. used Johnson and various other Grove Street gangsters, such as Ryder Wilson, for several jobs over the next few months, including stealing a trainload of weapons, burning down multiple Vagos gang members' houses, disrupting a meeting between the Ballas and the Russian Mafia and killing an FBI informant hiding out in Mount Chiliad. Eventually, overcome with guilt and fearful that his fellow officers might incriminate him for the murder of Pendelbury if backed against a wall, Hernandez decided to inform on Tenpenny and Pulaski, providing information to the CIA about the officer's death and blaming Tenpenny for it, which made Internal Affairs clamp down on the duo and consider dismissing them from the force. Having discovered Hernandez's role in betraying them, the two planned to take out two birds with one stone by killing him as well as Johnson now that he had outlived his usefulness.
Death[]
Eddie Pulaski shoots and kills Hernandez
After he had recovered damaging intel from the FBI informant, Johnson was told by Tenpenny to meet with him, Hernandez and Pulaski in the desert town of Bodie so he could give Tenpenny the dossier. Upon arriving there, Hernandez pulled his gun on Johnson, but after Tenpenny recovered the files, he knocked out Hernandez with a shovel and kicked him while he was on the ground for his treachery, believing him to be dead, before ordering Johnson to dig a grave for Hernandez and himself as well. While leaving to return to Los Angeles, Tenpenny ordered Pulaski to supervise Johnson while he was digging, and he threatened Johnson with his pistol while doing so. When Johnson finished his work, he attempted to sway Pulaski to his side, but the officer shut him down, not realizing that Hernandez had regained consciousness behind his back; Hernandez tried to lunge at him, but Pulaski shot him in the chest and he died, falling into the shallow grave. His last act served as a distraction for Johnson to regain forces and he killed Pulaski shortly thereafter, avenging Hernandez's death.