LOS ANGELES (VG) Two police officers were killed in Los Angeles. A man on trial, who died in the incident, is suspected.
Just updated
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The first reports on Tuesday were that two police officers had been killed in an exchange of fire after they moved out to reports of a possible stabbing at a motel.
Andrew Meyer, a homicide investigator at the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Office, has explained that police officers confronted the suspect inside the motel room where an exchange of gunfire took place. The suspect ran out and several shots were exchanged.
The two police officers Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana were taken to hospital, but their lives could not be saved.
–It is with a heavy heart that El Monte city and El Monte police district confirm that Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana have passed away, it was said in a press release after the killings.
Both had grown up in El Monte, east of downtown Los Angeles and had strong ties to the city.
The suspected perpetrator also died at the scene of the shooting. He was identified as Justin Flores, and according to ABC was out on probation for possession of a firearm.
Two other charges were dropped when Flores was convicted, writes NBC.
–He was arrested in 2021 for possession of weapons and drugs. State Attorney George Gascon stated last week that Flores had no previous convictions for violence.
– Took his own life
It was first reported that shots were exchanged between the suspect and the police officers.
Now the forensic pathologist’s conclusion has come. It shows that the suspect took his own life.
Attorney General George Gascon is now receiving strong criticism for the fact that Flores got an agreement which meant that he escaped imprisonment in 2021.
He also had several convictions from 2008 until now, including driving under the influence and possession of methamphetamine.
–The mother of one policeman, Olga Santana, says according to ABC that it was Gascon’s “insane policy” that allowed a gunman to go free and have the opportunity to kill her son.
– I blame Gascon for the murder of my son and his partner, she said at a press conference on Friday.
Second public prosecutor Jon Hatami, who is fighting to oust Gascón, has also criticized the agreement Flores received, which he believes is a consequence of Gascon’s policy.
– When Gascon implemented its policy, it did not care about previous violent history, the law, facts or people’s safety. He excluded all dots on the record. His excuses now are simply not true, he says.
– George Gascon – this person was violent! He should never have been out, Hatami writes on Twitter.
Flores was according to LA Times convicted of burglary in 2011, a crime that in the United States is classified as a so-called “strike”, which leads to a more severe sentence for the next crime.
However, the prosecutor in that case, Larry Holcomb, was told to set aside this “strike” system, and thus could not give Flores a more severe punishment for possession of a weapon. According to Holcomb, this was due to a new directive issued by Gascón.
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