Andrés Guardado (security guard)

Andres Guardado (November 3, 2001 – June 18, 2020) was an 18-year-old Salvadoran-American man shot in the back and killed by a deputy sheriff from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department on June 18, 2020, in the unincorporated community of West Rancho Dominguez, California, just outside of the Harbor Gateway section of the City of Los Angeles.

Guardado ran from two uniformed police officers into an alley, where he died after being shot by deputies.

Seven shots were fired and Guardado was hit in the upper torso.

Police say that Guardado produced a handgun during the chase.

Investigators do not believe it was fired.

Accounts of the incident are disputed between police and witnesses.

Police stated they were searching for footage of the incident.

Store-owner Andrew Heney reported that several cameras at the scene, including a digital video recorder that stored surveillance footage, were taken and destroyed by police.

Local protests emerged in response to the killing of Guardado and involved protestors and media reporters being tear gassed and shot by rubber bullets at the sheriff's station in Compton.

The incident was widely reported as the second police killing involving the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies within two days of one another, the other being Terron Jammal Boone, who was identified as the half-brother of 24-year-old Robert Fuller.

Guardado's death came in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and subsequent protests.

According to a whistleblower, the police who killed Guardado were trying to join a violent gang within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.

In November 2020, the L.A. county coroner's office ordered an inquest to be conducted in the case.

This was the first inquest ordered in the county in over thirty years and was noted to be a challenge against the power of county law enforcement.

Guardado's family had fled violence and political instability in El Salvador from the Salvadoran Civil War.

Guardado lived with his family in Koreatown, Los Angeles and had recently graduated high school.

He was working two jobs and was a student at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College to become a registered electrician or mechanic.

He was described by friends and family as fun-loving and optimistic.

Guardado worked as an unlicensed security guard for Street Dynamic Auto Body in West Rancho Dominguez.

The Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, which licenses security guards in the state of California, show no records in the Department of Consumer Affairs database of Guardado being licensed to work security.

Being younger than twenty-one, Guardado did not hold a firearms permit to be an armed security guard.

Police accounts of the incident relay that at 5:52 p.m. on June 18 two officers from the Compton Sheriff's station made contact with Guardado.

They were reportedly out on patrol when they saw Guardado talking to someone in a car blocking a driveway, so they stopped their vehicle.

Police say that Guardado ran away and allegedly produced a firearm at some point in the chase, although this is disputed by his family and employer.

The chase was taken southbound on Redondo Beach Blvd. and through a nearby alleyway.

At around 5:53 p.m., Guardado was shot at six times by one or multiple sheriff's deputies and hit in the upper body.

Guardado died on scene.

Store-owner Andrew Heney stated that Guardado "got down on his knees and surrendered with his hands behind his head but was still shot seven times in the back."

The shooting occurred near a business located in the 400 block of Redondo Beach Boulevard near S. Figueroa Street.

A gun was reportedly recovered on the scene.

The gun recovered at the scene was a "ghost gun" (a term used to describe an illegal firearm with no serial numbers imprinted on the gun) with a standard capacity magazine.

Both of those are felonies in the state of California.

It was unclear what "prompted the use of force" and what Guardado was "suspected of" to initially prompt the chase.

Heney stated, "the police came up, and they pulled their guns on him and he ran because he was scared, and they shot and killed him. He’s got a clean background and everything. There’s no reason."

A witness on the scene stated, "I turned around and saw two male white officers running up into the body shop where not even less than a second later I heard rapid gunshots, [I heard] about four to five shots fired [and] never heard them say ‘freeze’. I never once heard them say 'stop.' Nothing like that."

The deputies reportedly were not wearing body cameras.

Lt. Charles Calderaro stated that deputies "are hoping to find surveillance video from nearby businesses."

The sheriff's officers are accused of destroying several cameras at the scene and taking possession of the DVR that stored footage filmed by the surveillance cameras.

In an interview, Heney is quoted as saying that the deputies "illegally got into everything, then they had the place locked down and then they got the warrant.".

A small group, including Guardado's family, quickly gathered on scene after he was shot and killed.