An 18-year-old security guard, Andres Guardado has been shot dead by police in Los Angeles, California after he “produced a handgun” and fled when officers approached him.
The incident occurred Thursday evening
Guardado was stationed outside the autobody worship where in worked in Gardena, in LA’s South Bay Region, to prevent graffiti taggers from defacing the workshop’s walls.
Deputies reportedly approached him and he flashed a handgun before fleeing the scene due to fear, investigators said.
Daily Mail reported that officers began chasing him on foot southbound between two businesses before a deputy fired a gun, striking and killing Guardado in his upper torso at around 6pm.
His boss said the teenager had a clean record and the approaching deputies scared him into fleeing the scene by pulling their weapons on him.
“We had a security guard that was out front, because we had just had certain issues with people tagging and stuff like that.
“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,” Andrew Heaney, the autobody workshop owner, told journey.
His sister wept as she told reporters, “I lost a part of me, it’s empty, and I’m never gonna have him back.
“I’m never gonna see him, he’s never gonna talk to me, I’m just, I can’t, I just can’t believe this happened to my brother. It really hurts me.”
A gun was later recovered from the scene and Guardado’s believed not to be wearing a security guard uniform when the incident unfolded, although the victim’s family and friends have expressed doubt that he was armed at the time of the incident.
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