The household of 18-year-old Andrés Guardado efficiently gained an $8 million settlement after submitting a wrongful demise lawsuit in opposition to Los Angeles County. On June 18, 2020, Guardado was shot 5 instances and killed by two LA County sheriff’s deputies, who pursued him after he allegedly displayed a handgun and ran away from the auto physique store he labored at within the metropolis of Gardena. Nevertheless, the Guardado household’s attorneys have disputed the declare that he had any weapons on him, equally to different instances wherein cops have unjustly killed unarmed Black and Brown males. In his pursuit, deputy Miguel Vega was the one which fatally shot Guardado repetitively.
“Whereas the settlement reached with the County of Los Angeles brings closure to greater than two years of the civil lawsuit, it doesn’t deliver with it peace to our household or justice for our son, Andrés,” Cristobal Guardado, Andrés’ father, mentioned in a written assertion as reported by CNN.
Guardado’s wrongful demise got here after the widely-discussed Could 2020 homicide of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man, by the hands of Derek Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer. This sparked each nationwide and worldwide protests illuminating the hazards and injustice that Black folks and different communities of colour face when interacting with police.
In keeping with the Guardado household attorneys’ assertion, the FBI and the LA County District Lawyer’s Workplace are nonetheless investigating the taking pictures and haven’t but revealed whether or not Vega or his associate “have been inside coverage for his or her use of lethal pressure or if they are going to be disciplined and/or criminally charged for his or her actions.”
“Guardado refused a number of instructions to not attain for a gun, forcing deputy Vega to fireside his weapon in concern for his life,” Vega’s lawyer Adam Marangell beforehand instructed CNN,
Weeks earlier than Guardado’s homicide, Erik Salgado, a 23-year-old Latino man, was killed by California Freeway Patrol officers whereas his pregnant girlfriend was within the automobile, and in April 2020, 27-year-old Nicolas Chavez was additionally killed by police in Houston. Each of those investigations have been dismissed, and the DA refused to file costs in opposition to any of the cops concerned. This disappointing sequence of occasions solely additional highlights a disturbing disregard of the racial injustice that Black and Brown males face by the hands of cops.
“Peace and justice will solely come when the present investigations are accomplished, and Deputy Miguel Vega is held criminally liable for Andrés’ demise. We are going to endlessly be grateful to our attorneys, our neighborhood, and to all of these individuals who have raised their voices as advocates for justice for Andrés,” Guardado’s household mentioned of their assertion.
