Phony Inquest in Guardado Murder by LA Cops

On Jan. 18, retired Judge Candace Cooper who had been assigned to preside over the inquest into the Andres Guardardo police shooting ended it, gaining no more information than when it began. Deputies involved in the shooting, Miguel Vega and Chris Hernandez, again sought Fifth Amendment protections as they declined to answer questions where the answers might incriminate them. 

Andres Guardado was an 18 -year old Los Angeles man shot several times in the back and killed by Los Angeles County Deputy Sheriff Miguel Vega in Gardena on June 18, 2020. Guardado was working outside as an unlicensed plain clothes security guard at an auto-body shop. The police killing generated weeks of large protests.

A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said each person made the decision on the advice of his legal counsel, not at the direction of Sheriff Alex Villanueva. Legal experts said the move shows a refusal by the Sheriff’s Department to cooperate in a proceeding that Villanueva dismissed in a radio interview as a “circus stunt.”

At the coroner’s inquest, the first of its kind in nearly 30 years, Kevin Young, a deputy medical examiner, testified that the location of the five bullet wounds indicated Guardado had his back to the gun when he was shot, and that he could have been on his knees or lying prone on the ground. A toxicology report found no drugs or alcohol in his system.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors recommended the inquest amid nationwide protests over police brutality, with Guardado’s shooting reigniting calls for accountability and transparency within the department. Neither of which has happened.

Guardado’s  family filed a wrongful death suit against the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and accused Villanueva of being aware of the deputy gangs and Vega’s and Hernandez’s possibile affiliation with them– gangs known as the Executioners and/or the 3,000 Boys’. Whistleblower, Deputy Art Gonzalez, affirmed the family’s accusation in a June 23 video deposition. Gonzalez testified that 15 deputies at the Compton station — where Vega and Hernandez were assigned — belonged to the gang.

Members of the gang have matching skull tattoos. According to Gonzalez, the gang “celebrates” deputy-involved shootings by drinking and getting the tattoos.

Vega and Hernandez are also facing kidnap charges for their role in harassment and victimization of 24-year-old Jesus Alegria. The “above the law” cops face criminal charges and a civil lawsuit for kidnapping and then lying to cover-up their actions.

Officials for the sheriff’s department have refused to explain why it took more than two months to open an investigation into the cop’s criminal acts and eight months before Vega and Hernandez had their badges taken. Details of the incident and other violent and illegal cops’ actions were reported in detail by the Los Angeles Times..

Sheriff Villanueva’s failure to remove the officers after the Alegria kidnapping meant that they were on the street to ultimately kill Guardado. Indeed, they are still being paid by the LASD. 

Backed by ongoing national protests and on-line protest events, anti-police brutality activists and others have demanded that Vega and Hernandez be jailed. The latest such event was a Jan. 17 virtual protest over Zoom which was then live streamed over Facebook. The protest was essentially a protest-informational that included the leader of the Breonna Taylor Defense Committee,Tia Edison. Edison reported that two community activists who had taken videos of Louisville cop brutality have been murdered by the police in separate incidents over the past month. Activists are calling for the end of  “blue immunity.”  

Andrew Pulley, on-online protest organizer told this reporter, “We cannot stop our massive, peaceful and legal street protests until all the cold cases around the country have been reopened and responsible cops jailed. Cops kill 1,000 Black, Brown, white and native peoples every year. There should be no special rights for cops or “qualified immunity.”

The inadequate response and implicit cover-up by the courts in Guardado’s murder is an ominous sign that Vega and Hernandez, like so many others, will be set free  with only a slap on the wrist.