Los Angeles County reaches $8 million settlement with family of Andrés Guardado, who was killed by a deputy in June 2020

By Cheri Mossburg and Aya Elamroussi, CNN

Los Angeles County officials reached an $8 million settlement with the family of 18-year-old Andrés Guardado, who was shot five times by a sheriff’s deputy in June 2020, attorneys for his family said Tuesday.

“While the settlement reached with the County of Los Angeles brings closure to more than two years of the civil lawsuit, it does not bring with it peace to our family or justice for our son, Andrés,” Cristobal Guardado said in a written statement announcing the settlement.

The settlement stems from a wrongful death lawsuit Guardado’s family filed against the county.

It was approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors and will be paid to Guardado’s parents, according to the statement released by the family attorneys.

Guardado was killed June 18, 2020, as two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies pursued him after he allegedly displayed a handgun, looked at the deputies and ran away from an auto body shop in the city of Gardena in Los Angeles County, officials said at the time of the shooting. Attorneys representing the Guardado family have disputed those claims.

During the pursuit, deputy Miguel Vega fatally shot Guardado in the back five times, according to a family autopsy and the county coroner’s office.

Guardado, who was Latino, was killed against the backdrop of social and political unrest that was sparked after the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a White police officer in Minneapolis. Floyd’s murder led to national and global protests, decrying the racial injustice Black Americans and other communities of color face in police encounters.

The shooting prompted the first inquest in Los Angeles in more than 30 years. The Medical Examiner-Coroner’s Office determined Guardado’s death was a homicide.

Vega’s attorney Adam Marangell previously told CNN, “Guardado refused multiple commands not to reach for a gun, forcing deputy Vega to fire his weapon in fear for his life.”

In an email Wednesday, Marangell told CNN, “Neither I nor Deputy Vega had knowledge of the settlement prior to it being announced.”

The FBI and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office are still investigating the shooting, according to the Guardado family attorneys and haven’t disclosed yet whether Vega or his partner on the day of the shooting “were within policy for their use of deadly force or if they will be disciplined and/or criminally charged for their actions,” the statement said.

“Peace and justice will only come when the current investigations are completed, and Deputy Miguel Vega is held criminally responsible for Andrés’ death. We will forever be grateful to our attorneys, our community, and to all of those people who have raised their voices as advocates for justice for Andrés,” the statement from Guardado’s family said.

CNN has reached out to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors for further comment.

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CNN’s Sarah Moon contributed to this report.