Los Angeles Country Sheriff Villanueva continues to stonewall the public in the case of the officer-involved shooting death of 18 year old Andres Guardado. Recently the Daily Beast reports “the Sheriff Civilian Oversight Commission and its investigative arm, the Office of Inspector General—told the Los Angeles Times they have asked for the evidence but, so far, it hasn’t been forthcoming.”
In a must-read, in-depth report by investigative reporters from the LA Times, the two deputies involved in the shooting have been identified and the troubling background of the shooter gas been uncovered. Accusations of evidence-tampering, witness intimidation, excessive use of force and lying to investigators are presented against LA Deputy Miguel Vega. At least one ongoing complaint was still under investigation at the time of the killing.
What’s notable to those who pay close attention to this case is that thus far this has not actually followed the usual playbook of “he said/ she said” excuses for use of deadly force. Keep in mind, those stories usually more closely resemble “cop said/kid’s dead” and are thus biased in a policeman’s favor when it comes to self-defense claims. Instead, according to the Times and CNN, deputy Miguel Vega has yet to say anything at all to Homicide Investigators from the LASD who are currently the only ones tasked with finding out what really happened at an auto body shop in Gardena, California in the late afternoon on June 18th, 2020. He’s been represented by a lawyer from the policemen’s union and, as is his right under the current rules, he is not compelled to say anything at all until the investigation is complete. This means that the entire mainstream narrative of how the teen was pursued after deputies saw a handgun produced/ brandished/ sticking out of his clothing (take your pick of LASD related second-hand stories) is hearsay at best at present. Everything you’ve seen in most media about the kid having a gun at all is vaporware, conjecture, hearsay and guesswork, rumor and innuendo. No one actually swears this happened.
What little the LASD has said is mostly lies and self-serving copaganda.
But let’s instead look at what is public knowledge at this point. Andres is dead, likely shot in the back according to accounts reported in two ways — from those who claim to have spoken to eyewitnesses, who relate that Andres was on his knees, hands on his head when shot. The other version is what Vega’s partner’s lawyer told
CNN: a similar but slightly more disturbing story that the teen was flat on his stomach, “proned out” when he was shot six or seven times in the back. This self-serving, third-hand account goes like this:
"They drove by and they saw a car in front, with Guardado talking to some females there outside the car. The deputies saw the butt of a firearm sticking out of the waistband of Guardado's pants," (lawyer) Yu continued. After the deputies chased him and told him to get on the ground, "Guardado prones out, he's on the ground but he has access to his firearm. My client can see (only) half of Guardado's body because his view is blocked by a wall."
Keep in mind this narrative is NOT coming from LASD, nor has it been related, yet to investigators. It’s a soft opening, as it were, a trial balloon. It’s coming over the transom from the lawyer of the partner of the killer, not from authorities. To his credit, Sherrif Villanueva is media trained and careful what he actually says. Examining what he hasn’t said and does not say is illuminating. We don’t know if the officers were on duty. We don’t know if they were in uniform, and we don’t know if they were driving an unmarked car, but there have been reports that they were both plainclothes and in an unmarked vehicle. And even the lawyer doesn’t say what happened at the curb that caused the teen to run away, seemingly. Was he shot at, threatened, did officers approach him with guns drawn, in plain clothes, from an unmarked vehicle? We don’t know. No one has said.
An autopsy was performed but the results have been withheld by a “security hold” placed by Sheriff Villanueva. He claims the “ongoing investigation” as a reason for this, but the only thing ongoing is the killer’s refusal to give a statement and answer questions from the Homicide detectives charged with running Villanuava’s probe. Seems like a bit of circular logic.
The other thing we seem to actually know is that the circumstances of what happened after the shooting were said to be highly unusual. According to the teen’s father, the body was not moved until 5AM, and in the meantime there was a lot of very unhappy people on the scene rather quickly. But not too quickly. Witnesses are claimed to have been present and to have seen the shooting but no one yet seems to have publicly identified them, or claimed they have spoken to investigators. Andres’ family claims he would not have carried a gun. LASD claims officers found an untraceable semi-automatic on the scene. A video surfaced the next day showing the manager of the body shop claiming the teen was unarmed, that witnesses saw him shot while kneeling, and that LASD smashed outdoor security cameras and confiscated a DVR from inside the building before getting a warrant. (The manager also claims there were three officers involved, not two.) There doesn’t seem to be any credible reason to smash security cameras, but the following Saturday LASD spokesperson told reporters that deputies were “looking for memory cards.” It’s highly unlikely that security cameras would have the footage recorded where vandals and burglars could access them. It’s this detail that seems to hold the key to the whole case, yet we’ve had almost no reporting on it, and only a frankly bullshit explanation for it.
A petition is circulating demanding the LASD make the surveillance video public, and 373,854 have signed, but it’s really just a protest referendum. There very likely is no video of the shooting, and we know why there isn’t going to be any after. LASD made sure of that.
With the panicked smashing of the security cameras, the officers present seemed to have signaled their nefarious intent. Although they could not know at the time that the cameras were not recording, they assumed they were buying themselves time to source, obtain and plant a “throw-down gun” on the body of Andres Guardado.
Tuesday, Jul 7, 2020 · 11:44:35 PM +00:00
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willisnewton
UPDATE: The family of Andres Guardado has held a small private funeral which not all could attend due to COVID-19 issues. Nothing yet has been made public about the results of the official autopsy, or any independent autopsy. The “security hold” is still in place. LASD and the various lawyers for the Deputies and the family have made no new statements to the press.
Thursday, Jul 9, 2020 · 2:34:12 AM +00:00
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willisnewton
8 JUL 2020
Independent autopsy results were released by the family of #AndresGuardado. He was shot five times in the back in a fairly tight pattern, one glancing shot going forward on his arm. (shot from behind, bullet to going to the front) No drugs, alcohol found in preliminary toxiology report.
LASD also gave a short presser. Look for a new diary when I can catch up on all this. We are now on day 8 of the “week to ten days” deputy Hernandez’s said his client would give testimony by, unclear if he or the shooter Vega have answered investigators questions yet. LASD still holds full autopsy report, still has not allowed any outside investigation, still not cooperating with IG, has not prodiced documents filed for my the press, etc.
One can be sure that if the LASD had something bad to present about the teen, they would have put it out today.