The strip of businesses where a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy fatally shot Andres Guardado had been the site of numerous criminal investigations, including one for a gang-related shooting that injured a man less than two weeks before.
Chris Marks, a commander with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, said the line of auto shops, at 420 W. Redondo Beach Boulevard near Gardena, had been the location of 23 calls for service since January 2015.
One of them, he said, was a November 2018 gang-related murder. There were also 10 calls for disturbances, two for possible burglaries, two for reported batteries, and a pair for purported vandalism.
On June 7, the two deputies involved in the Guardado incident responded to that suspected gang-related shooting, with a man found with multiple gunshot wounds.
Just 11 days later, those two deputies were on patrol and spotted Guardado talking with two people in a white car. The deputies, through their lawyers, said he was armed; one deputy said when the 18-year-old was later on the ground as ordered, he reached for his gun and was then shot.
His family has said he didn’t have accress to a gun.
“There’s obviously a pattern of criminal activity occurring at this location, which is why the deputies are probably drawn to that location in being proactive and trying to address a problem,” Marks said.
There was no link between the previous calls and Guardado, the commander said.
Guardado’s DNA was found on the trigger, the trigger guard and the magazine inside the pistol that was found near his body, Marks said.
Sheriff’s investigators have found only one relevant video, from a business across the street, Marks said. It shows a white car pulling up and a woman getting out to retrieve something from the trunk. Guardado is seen speaking with the car’s occupants and running from the two pursuing deputies.
The video is not clear, making it difficult to see if he had a gun.
Investigators have yet to find and speak with the two occupants of the car, Marks said. Video shows the car making a U-turn and leaving after Guardado disappears off-camera. Investigators were unable to read the license plate.
Both deputies have been interviewed and answered all of the questions of investigators, Marks said, though he declined to discuss the conversations.
Ballistics tests on the weapon were still ongoing, Marks said. It was described as having a 3D-printed polymer frame, a Smith and Wesson slide, and an extended, loaded magazine with 14 rounds.
Investigators were still trying to obtain information from phones and social-media accounts.
Los Angeles County deputies do not typically wear body cameras yet. No onsite cameras captured the shooting, and a DVR that had been recording at the location was seized by investigators for the previous shooting on June 7, Marks said.
“If there hadn’t been a shooting on June 7,and we didn’t follow through with a thorough investigation, then yes, there would have been a recording,” Marks said.
Attorney Adam Shea, who represents Guardado’s family, said in a statement that Wednesday’s press conference did nothing to explain why Guardado was shot. Officials talking about the location’s criminal history was “nothing more than an attempt to justify the killing of this young man,” he said.
The video, he said, “only reveals a scared 18-year-old literally running for his life.”
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Location of Andres Guardado shooting near Gardena had history of criminal activity - The Daily Breeze
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