The parents of Andrés Guardado, the 18-year-old Latino man shot five times in the back by a Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputy in June 2020, have reached an $8 million dollar settlement with officials. Attorneys said the settlement was unanimously approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, and resulted from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family in late 2020.
“While the settlement reached with the County of Los Angeles brings closure to more than two years of the civil lawsuit, it does not bring with it peace to our family or justice for our son, Andrés,” said his dad, Cristobal Guardado. “Peace and justice will only come when the current investigations are completed, and Deputy Miguel Vega is held criminally responsible for Andrés’ death.”
Per the statement from attorneys, probes into Vega, as well as a partner Chris Hernandez, remain ongoing or have not yet been publicly released.
RELATED STORY: 18-year-old Andrés Guardado was shot 5 times in back by police, independent autopsy finds
Campaign Action
“Officials with the FBI and the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office have not yet concluded their investigation and/or disclosed their findings as to whether Deputy Vega and/or Deputy Hernandez were within policy for their use of deadly force or if they will be disciplined and/or criminally charged for their actions,” the release said. Attorneys noted that Vega and Hernandez approached the part-time security guard “[f]or no justifiable or necessary reason,” ultimately shooting him five times in the back.
“Andrés never posed an immediate risk to the deputies, or any other person, and the deputies had no reason to believe Andrés was a threat to anyone,” attorneys said. The 18-year-old’s death at the hands of deputies was followed by a frustrating lack of answers. What soon emerged however, and was detailed in the wrongful death suit filed by the family, were disturbing allegations from a fellow sheriff’s deputy identifying both Vega and Hernandez as potential recruits for a racist and violent law enforcement gang called the Executioners.
Public outrage eventually led to the Los Angeles County coroner’s office opening a nearly unprecedented inquest into Guardado’s killing. The independent inquest, which the coroner’s office said would be overseen by a former court of appeals justice, was the first such investigation in more than three decades. This news was welcomed by Guardado’s family and advocates, who had slammed the secrecy and lack of transparency from the sheriff’s department following the killing.
However, both Vega and Hernandez refused to testify in the inquest. “The findings by retired justice Candace Cooper mention that Guardado's death was not an accident and came ‘by the hands of another,’” LAist reported following the inquest’s conclusion in early 2021.
“Vega is off the streets after being relieved of duty in December, though not for shooting Guardado. He and Hernandez—who was also relieved of duty—are under investigation for an incident last April in which Vega crashed his patrol vehicle, allegedly while chasing a teen on a bicycle in an alley while a man they had detained under questionable circumstances was in the back seat, according to the Los Angeles Times,” the report noted at the time. It’s unclear what has happened since, however, and Vega already had a history of accusations under his belt even before he chased after Guardado and pulled the trigger.
“It is difficult to imagine anything worse than losing one’s child, yet Elisa and Cristobal remain hopeful that Andrés’ death will not have been in vain—that somehow through this tragedy, their loss can spark change in a department that is in such great need of change,” said attorney Nicholas Yoka. “The civil justice system has done its part, now the family waits on the criminal justice system.”
Large protests that followed the killing demanded justice not just for Guardado, but all Black and brown people shot dead by local law enforcement. “This is just one more of so many people who have been killed by the L.A. County sheriffs and the police ... this is the unity between the Black and brown community saying we are tired of this,” Union del Barrio member Ron Gochez told the Los Angeles Times in June 2020. The $8 million settlement is in fact part of a massive $47.6 million dollars that the county has agreed to pay out over police-led abuses.
Cristobal Guardado said in his statement that he’ll “forever be grateful to our attorneys, our community, and to all of those people who have raised their voices as advocates for justice for Andrés.”
RELATED STORIES:
Officer identified as shooting and killing 18-year-old Andrés Guardado has history of accusations
Family of man shot five times in back files wrongful death lawsuit against sheriff's department
Family, advocates continue asking what led to Andrés Guardado's shooting death by police