18-year-old Andrés Guardado was shot 5 times in back by police, independent autopsy finds
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An independent autopsy performed at the request of the family of Andrés Guardado has found that the 18-year-old student and part-time security guard was shot in the back five times by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy last month, NBC News reports.
Guardado’s family, already frustrated over the lack of answers regarding his killing by police on June 18, requested the independent autopsy after the department put a “security hold” on the L.A. County coroner’s results. “These findings confirm what we have known all along,” his family said according to LAist, “which is that Andrés was unjustifiably killed by a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputy.”
“Lawyers for the Guardado family have said that officials’ failure to explain exactly what prompted the shooting has made the family’s grieving process that much more difficult,” NBC News said, as well as anger around an allegation by police that he was armed. Police claim they found an unmarked gun at the scene that had not been fired, “leading police to believe that Andres didn’t fire it,” the report continued.
“We do not believe that he had a gun,” family attorney Adam Shea said according to NBC News. “There was a gun at the scene. How and why that gun was there and who it belonged to is a question that needs to be answered.” Doubt around the police’s claims are only heightened following a Los Angeles Times report that Miguel Vega, the officer who reportedly killed the 18-year-old, has already faced a number of accusations of misconduct in the past, including “making false statements in an investigation.”
While Vega initially refused to make a statement to investigators, NBC News reports he’s set to be interviewed in the coming days. Both Vega and Chris Hernandez, the officer who was with him the day he shot and killed Guardado, are still employed by the sheriff’s department but officials wouldn’t say where they’re currently assigned, the report said.
Raising more alarms about a lack of transparency is the fact that sheriff’s department has yet to turn over evidence requested by the county’s inspector general. “On June 22, 2020, my office requested documents and video recovered in the investigation into the shooting of Andres Guardado. We have received no response,” the County of Los Angeles Office of Inspector General wrote to Sheriff Alex Villanueva this week. “I ask that you provide us the items requested immediately.”
Recent data has found that Latinos follow Black Americans in the demographic most violently affected by police violence.
“It’s not an issue that’s associated with Latinos in the same way that it’s associated with African American men in particular,” Rep. Joaquin Castro said according to NPR, “but it has been a real problem for the Latino community throughout the country, particularly in inner city neighborhoods of folks being profiled, folks being killed over the years.”
“Of course the years of systemic racism and voicelessness are not near the same level the Black community has been forced to endure,” AL DÍA News’ Ericka Conant rightfully notes, “but the recent deaths of multiple Latinx individuals at the hands of police have reignited the call to end police brutality against Latinx people as well.”
Guardado’s family has said they will not rest until their loved one receives justice. “Our son did not deserve to die this way,” they said according to NBC News. “Andres was a good boy, he was our son and he had so much life ahead of him.”