Rare investigation confirms homicide death of 18-year-old gunned down by deputy sheriff in LA County

Andres Guardado’s parents hoped that a rare investigation into their 18-year-old son’s fatal shooting involving two Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies would clarify the circumstances that led to the young man’s murder seven months ago.

But the first investigation Los Angeles County has seen in over 30 years barely revealed new information. Former Court of Appeals Judge Candace Cooper, who conducted the inquest at the behest of Los Angeles County Chief Medical Examiner-Coroner Dr. Jonathan Lucas on Nov. 30, upheld an earlier finding of the office that Guardado’s death was a homicide, officials said on Friday. .

Cristobal and Elisa Guardado, the parents of the young man who died, said in a statement that “Judge Cooper has confirmed what we have known from the start”. Cooper concluded that Guardado died on June 18 in an alleyway on Redondo Beach Boulevard in Gardena, California. The medical cause of his death was multiple gunshot wounds and the manner of death was “by the hands of another person other than by accident,” Cooper wrote in his findings.

Cooper said she based her findings on testimony from medical experts, investigators and witnesses to the shooting, as well as subpoenas from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which did not not made public. However, several members of the sheriff’s department, including the two lawmakers involved in Guardado’s murder, declined to answer questions during the November 30 investigation.

Deputy Miguel Vega, who opened fire, did not attend the proceedings. But he submitted a statement “indicating that if he were to appear and be questioned at the inquest, he would assert his Fifth Amendment right not to testify,” Cooper wrote in the inquiry’s findings. Deputy Chris Hernandez, who did not shoot, as well as two homicide detectives from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigating Guardado’s death, repeatedly refused to answer questions, claiming that, on the advice of a lawyer, they were invoking their Fifth Amendment rights NBC Los Angeles reported.

Cooper said she had enough evidence to conclude the investigation without calling more witnesses or asking for more evidence, therefore deciding that she “will not pursue Fifth Amendment issues raised during the investigation.”

Cooper’s decision to end the investigation without further disclosure essentially means that the Sheriff’s Department’s previous account of Guardado’s death, which sparked protests throughout the summer, will remain the official version unless that the case not be reconsidered at trial.

Guardado was shot five times in the back while working as a security guard at an auto body shop in Gardena last summer. The deputies involved in his murder, Vega and Hernandez, reportedly saw the 18-year-old with a gun on the day of the shooting. Guardado then fled and MPs chased him down an alley at the back of a building where he was killed, Homicide bureau chief Captain Kent Wegener said at a press conference in June. While an unsuccessful 40-caliber semi-automatic pistol was found at the scene, authorities are unable to say whether Guardado ever pointed the gun at MPs.

Investigators said there was no video of the shooting because the deputies did not have a body camera; they said a program to provide the cameras was blocked for years. They also said MPs could not find video footage of the shooting in surrounding businesses.

The decision whether or not to charge MPs implicated in Guardado’s death will fall on the shoulders of recently elected District Attorney George Gascón.

Cristobal and Elisa Guardado, who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Los Angeles County and its sheriff’s department two months before the investigation, now urge Gascón to “do what the sheriff’s department didn’t do , that is, to take action and hold these deputies accountable for their criminal actions. “

“Andres was a good person with his whole life ahead of him. This life was violently taken from him, and we are suffering the consequences as his killers remain free. Our family will not rest until we have done justice for Andres. “, added Guardado’s parents.