Andres Guardado, 18

Los Angeles, California
June 18, 2020

Agencies: Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department California LASD

Cause of death: Shooting

Follow This Case

---

Last updated: about 3 years ago

Overview

A security guard has been shot dead by police in California after 'producing a handgun' and fleeing the scene when approached by officers 'because he was scared'. 

Andres Guardado, 18, was standing outside the autobody shop where he worked in Gardena, in the South Bay region of Los Angeles, guarding against graffiti taggers on Thursday evening. 

The Hispanic teenager allegedly spotted officers patrolling the area just before 6pm, and investigators say they saw him flash a hand gun before taking off. 

His boss told reporters Guardado had a clean record, and that the approaching sheriffs pulled their own guns on the teenager, which scared him into fleeing the scene.  

Officers began chasing him on foot southbound before a deputy fired a gun 'at least several times', striking Guardado's upper torso and killing him.

Legal Action

June 2020 Shot in the back while running away

June 2020 LASD Deputy gangs

June 2020 Eyewitness says unarmed

In June 2020, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva said that he reached out to the California Attorney General’s Office to monitor the investigation into the deadly shooting.

As of 10 days after the killing, the deputy had not yet spoken to investigators. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputy Miguel Vega will "give an interview in the next week to 10 days," his attorney Adam Marangell told CNN.

On July 8, 2020, and independent autopsy revealed that Guardado was shot five times in the back and that he did not have drugs or alcohol in his system at the time of his death.

Later in July, the Los Angeles County medical examiner confirmed that 18-year-old Andres Guardado was shot five times in the back, as his family had previously said.

On July 17, 2020, the FBI said it would review the LA County Sheriff's Department's killing of Guardado to determine if a fedral response is needed.

In August 2020, a whistleblower testified under oath that the deputy who shot and killed 18-year-old Andres Guardado outside a car shop in Gardena was a prospective member of a violent clique inside the Compton Sheriff’s station.

On September 1, 2020, the family of Andres Guardado sues Sheriff’s Department, deputies involved in fatal shooting

Community and Family Efforts

June 2020 Family demand answers