According to a sworn testimony from a lawsuit that is moving slowly but surely forward in federal court, Deputies who murdered Andres Guardado were prospects for Compton cop-shop Executioner gang, a criminal cabal that controls the station house through violence, intimidation and a culture of prison-gang influenced tactics and methods to silence whistle-blowers and cut of avenues to Internal Affairs oversight. The LA Times obtained the recent deposition of a whistleblower who worked there for five years and is pursuing a federal civil rights lawsuit regarding his mistreatment at the hands of the Executioners.
Deputy Miguel Vega and his partner Christopher Hernandez chased Andres Guardado down an alley where Vega then caught up to him and shot him in the back while the teen was on his knees. He slumped to the ground, likely dead already from a downward shot to his heart and then Vega stepped forward and shot him four more times in the back. Vega’s statement cannot be made to conform to forenesics released the very next day by the Coroner’s office in defiance of a “security hold” placed by Sheriff Villanueva. Vega told investigators the teen was on his stomach “reaching for a gun” when he FIRST shot him. He’s lying. Then Deputies smashed all the cameras on the site to buy time to secure and plant a throw-down gun.
Suppressed autopsy details the trajectory of the first fatal bullet on the left as a downward shot, indicating the teen was likely kneeling as Vega says he ordered the teen to do.
The first, fatal shot was traced downward.
Later shots traveled UPWARDS.
African-American deputies and women are not allowed to join the gang, according to the claim. Killing people seems to be a prerequisite, however. "Executioners" gang members held special "inking parties" celebrating the killing of citizens after which each new member gets to number his hell-striding skeleton tattoo. Numbers 38 and 40 are named in the lawsuit.
An Executioners Gang tattoo as documented in the lawsuit.
The lawsuits and accusations stretch back many years, suggesting strongly the systemic problems that plague law enforcement culture in South Central Los Angeles are longstanding, well known and near-intractable issues that stain the entire idea of policing in Los Angeles as performed by the LA Sheriff’s department.
The LA Times investigative reporter who broke the story of killer Deputy Miguel Vega’s clouded past, Alene Tchekmedyian has dug into the long-simmering steaming cesspool of jailhouse gangs that include The Jump Out Boys, the 3000 (Block) Boys, and other groups like the Lynwood Vikings that were straight-up white supremacist Neo-Nazi gangs as documented extensively by The Appeal, an excellent publication that focuses on prisons, jail and police issues. Their 2018 article and the lawsuit itself seems to be the origin for the LAT new report that generated the usual round of local television coverage and ripple effect stories parroting the news. Other LASD gangs have included the Hats, the Little Devils, the Grim Reapers, the 2000 boys, and the Regulators. There are more, and the problems date back as far as 1971 and earlier.
Little of this is new, but in a way this is the point. The killing of Andres Guardado is a tragedy and a travesty of justice but it exists on a continuum. The LA Times article starts like this, speaking about the practice of planting a weapon or claiming a weapon was on a suspect.
At the Compton sheriff's station, it's called a ghost gun: a weapon a deputy says he spots on a suspect but that is never found when colleagues respond to the scene and search for it.
That's because the call-out is based on a lie. The deputy didn't actually see a gun, but his suspect could turn out to be armed and an arrest or recovered firearm could pad his reputation.
It's the kind of behavior that plays out regularly at the station,according to a whistleblower who worked there for five years and recounted other sensational allegations in a recent deposition obtained by The Times in a federal civil rights lawsuit.
There’s more to all this below the fold, but I will try to save screen space for other injustices so that those who are not looking for an in-depth story.
The city of Compton disbanded it’s entire (corrupt ) police force on September 16, 2000. Effective September 17, 2000, the Compton City Council contracted with the County of Los Angeles for law enforcement services provided by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The mayor of Compton is vocally opposed to the way the LASD polices Compton. "We demand justice from the Compton sheriffs and we will no longer continue to pay you $22 million to terrorize this community," said Mayor Brown, who takes issue with Sheriff Alex Villanueva's statement last week that "no gang of deputies is running any station right now."
This is the eleventh diary I’ve written about Andres Guardado’s murder at the hands of lying, corrupt LASD deputies and the department and Sheriff that covers for them, closes ranks, stonewalls, stalls, spins and deflects. None have gotten more than 30 or so rec’s on this platform. His killers are almost certain to escape a trial. The “investigation” run solely by the department that employed them and allowed all these gangs to flourish. In fact, I can predict the exact language that will be used to dismiss the idea of murder charges, because the county’s District Attorney has said them so many times before. As detailed in story from The Appeal regarding another highly suspicious shooting, that of the killing of Donata Taylor:
A review of the fatal shooting by Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey in 2017 concluded that “there is insufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Aldama and Orrego did not act in self-defense and the defense of others when they fired their service weapons at others.”
Of course there is sufficient evidence here to move for a trial. But there is no large scale public outcry and the forces of authority clearly don’t want a trial. There is a petition with nearly 600,000 signatures, there are a few hard working community organizers, and the teen’s grieving family in addition to one local newspaper reporter working on part time furlough hours from home pushing for justice. It hasn’t been enough to overcome the tide of corrupt history.
