Killing of Andres Guardado

Photo of Andres Guardado

Guardado's family had fled violence and political instability in El Salvador from the Salvadoran Civil War.[2][20] Guardado lived with his family in Koreatown, Los Angeles[17] and had recently graduated high school. He was working two jobs and was a student at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to become a registered electrician or mechanic.[2][3] He was described by friends and family as fun-loving and optimistic.[21]

Guardado worked as an unlicensed security guard for Street Dynamic Auto Body in West Rancho Dominguez.[22] The Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which licenses security guards in the state of California, show no records in the Department of Consumer Affairs database of Guardado being licensed to work security.[23] Being younger than twenty-one, Guardado did not hold a firearms permit to be an armed security guard.[24][25]

Police accounts of the incident relay that at 5:52 p.m.[6] on June 18 two officers from the Compton Sheriff's station made contact with Guardado.[21] They were reportedly out on patrol when they saw Guardado talking to someone in a car blocking a driveway, so they stopped their vehicle.[5] Police say that Guardado ran away and allegedly produced a firearm at some point in the chase, although this is disputed by his family and employer.[15][9][4] The chase was taken southbound on Redondo Beach Blvd. and through a nearby alleyway.[21]

At around 5:53 p.m.,[14] Guardado was shot at six times[5] by one or multiple sheriff's deputies and hit in the upper body.[6] Guardado died on scene.[21][16] Store-owner Andrew Heney stated that Guardado "got down on his knees and surrendered with his hands behind his head but was still shot seven times in the back."[10] The shooting occurred near a business located in the 400 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard near S. Figueroa Street. A gun was reportedly recovered on the scene.[21] The gun recovered at the scene was a "ghost gun" (a term used to describe an illegal firearm with no serial numbers imprinted on the gun) with a standard capacity magazine. Both of those are felonies in the state of California. It was unclear what "prompted the use of force" and what Guardado was "suspected of" to initially prompt the chase.[8]

Heney stated, "the police came up, and they pulled their guns on him and he ran because he was scared, and they shot and killed him. He’s got a clean background and everything. There’s no reason."[9] A witness on the scene stated, "I turned around and saw two male white officers running up into the body shop where not even less than a second later I heard rapid gunshots, [I heard] about four to five shots fired [and] never heard them say ‘freeze’. I never once heard them say 'stop.' Nothing like that."[21]

The deputies reportedly were not wearing body cameras. Lt. Charles Calderaro stated that deputies "are hoping to find surveillance video from nearby businesses."[8] The sheriff's officers are accused of destroying several cameras at the scene and taking possession of the DVR that stored footage filmed by the surveillance cameras. In an interview, Heney is quoted as saying that the deputies "illegally got into everything, then they had the place locked down and then they got the warrant.".[10]

An "emergency hold" was placed on the autopsy report by Sheriff Villanueva, preventing the release of details pending the conclusion of the investigation conducted by the Homicide division of the LASD.[33][34] An independent autopsy released by Guardado's family shows Andres Guardado was shot 5 times in the back.[18]

On November 10, 2020, the L.A. county coroner's office ordered an inquest which was previously voted on by the L.A. County Board of Supervisors in September. The inquest will be conducted by Court of Appeals Justice Candace Cooper and will begin on November 30. It is notably the first inquest to occur in the county in over thirty years. Dr. Jonathan Lucas, who is the county’s chief medical examiner-coroner, stated "an inquest ensures that our residents will have an independent review of all the evidence and findings of our office and of the cause and manner of death of Mr. Guardado.” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas stated:[19]

For far too long we have accepted the status quo — we haven’t sufficiently challenged law enforcement’s incessant demands that investigations remain shrouded in secrecy. This board must not sit by and allow the county’s law enforcement department to entrench itself in traditional patterns of behavior that profoundly harm not only vulnerable communities but the entire justice system.[19]

According to the LA Times, in April 2020 partners Vega and Hernandez were involved in an incident that eventually led to an investigation and suspension, but not until six months had past, and the death of Guardado happened. A 24 year-old skateboarder had vocally defended other younger skaters as the Deputies verbally abused them, and says he was placed quickly into the back seat of the patrol car, unhandcuffed and without a seat belt. A car wreck ensued when Vega drove at excessive speed chasing other kids on bicycles through an alley causing injury requiring hospitalization and stitches. A lawsuit claiming the Deputies were abusive, threatening and reckless was filed, and a LASD investigation quickly led to the two being taken off patrol duty. Sheriff Villanueva was named in lawsuit for his negligence in supervision, and a court decision upheld his inclusion.[35][36]

According to a sworn testimony of a whistle blower, Guardado was murdered by the police as part of an initiation into a violent police gang within the department, The Compton Executioners. The same whistle blower had previously filed a complaint regarding the existence of this gang.[37]

In April 2021, a college newspaper published a story with an interview identifying the eyewitness driving the white Lexus parked at the curb of the alley where Guardado was chased and shot. She claims the deputy chasing Andres fired his pistol on the run, and to have seen that Andres was unarmed. "He never pulled out a gun, when he was running," the witness is quoted, continuing "That's when they start shooting." Additionally, she claims to have witnessed two separate volleys of pistol fire, one on the run that caused Andres to fall to the ground and a second that she only heard as she drove away. (The self-defense story related to the press by Vega's attorney differs from this strongly, claiming all shots were fired after Guardado was prone on the ground.)

The same student newspaper story also says that the witness was arrested around August 1 by Compton-based LASD deputies near her home in Hawthorne but that she was carried to a Sheriff's station in Lakewood instead, some sixteen miles away from the nearest station house where she was held for two days and questioned by LASD detectives, whom she claims tried to intimidate her into changing her statement. "They were trying to press me, like saying I've seen Andres with guns before and there's pictures of him. They tried to come at me stupid, like scientifically, they can prove that's not what happened."

This witness was never identified publicially by LASD and so was not called to the Coroner's inquest. The April 2021 story has not been followed up on by other media as of the one-year anniversary of the shooting and the LASD has not announced any end to their investigation, having previously claimed it was still open, "ongoing" pending finding all the witnesses.[38]

In November 2022, the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors approved an $8 million settlement to be paid Guardado's family.[39]