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Sheriff Offers A Little More Info On Guardado Killing — But Not On Why He Was Shot Five Times In The Back
A Compton protest over the fatal shooting of Andres Guardado by a sheriff's deputy. (Brian Feinzimer/for LAist)
An L.A. County Sheriff's Commander said today the department doesn't have any video of a deputy's fatal shooting of 18-year-old Andres Guardado in Gardena because detectives had removed the surveillance cameras' digital recorder to investigate a previous shooting at the same location.
Commander Chris Marks' presentation to a news conference included:
- A photo of the gun authorities say was recovered from Guardado
- A video from a business across the street that shows the young man appearing to run away from deputies — but does not show the shooting.
What Marks didn't do was shed any light on why Deputy Miguel Vega shot Guardado five times in the back.
Marks spent a considerable amount of time detailing ongoing possible drug dealing and other illegal activity at the auto body shop where Guardado was killed, including an unsolved 2018 gang-related murder.
He said there was no information linking Guardado to any of the previous incidents, but Guardado family attorney Adam Shea blasted the news conference, calling it an "attempt to convolute and cherry pick the facts to create a narrative that links Andres' death to previous incidents of crime near the shop."
READ OUR FULL REPORT ON THE NEWS CONFERENCE:
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