Compton’s Black and Brown Communities United on Father’s Day to March for Andres Guardado Only to Be Met by Sheriffs in Riot Gear

[dropcap size=big]T[/dropcap]housands came out on Father’s day to support the family of Andres Guardado who was shot at least six times and killed by a deputy at Compton’s Sheriff's Department this past Thursday, June 18th. A couple of hundred community members met around 2:00 PM on Sunday at 420 West Redondo Beach Blvd, the site of the incident, for a march organized by Union del Barrio. Andres’ father, Cristobal, his uncle, and cousin were present and joined the march down Compton Boulevard to the Sheriff’s station to demand justice. 

Black community members showed up, expressed their solidarity to Cristobal in front of participants, and provided security and escort for the marchers. Cristobal asked the marchers, for one thing: a peaceful march on Father’s Day. Black community members promised to work hard to keep the peace and provided a group of bikers in the front to escort marchers, a man who asked L.A. Taco to withhold his last name, Eric, provided security on foot. 

Directing traffic and de-escalating situations with angry drivers along the way. 

At that point, protest organizers pleaded for protesters to leave and clear the area with a megaphone. They shouted that the demonstration was over and they didn’t want to feed into more police violence. Nevertheless, the small group was visibly agitated by the police and continued yelling at the police who kept shooting from a distance at protesters who had retreated. Some protesters sat peacefully in front of Sheriffs and were arrested on site. 

There are still many questions that remain unanswered regarding Guardado’s death. The biggest outcry being that Sheriffs allegedly took cameras and the DVR. According to a recent press conference by Sheriff Alex Villanueva, the cameras were taken to search for memory cards inside of them, which they didn’t have. They also stated that the owner of the business willingly gave them the DVR, which was not hooked up at the time. 

Investigators also informed the public there was a previous shooting where drugs and a weapon were recovered on June 7th at the same location where Guardado was killed. If there was any association or if the officers who pulled up to Guardado were aware of this incident is unclear yet.  The one fact that everyone seems to agree on, including Sheriffs, is that the officers saw Guardado outside the property and pulled up drawing their weapons. Which caused Guardado to run scared, prompting one officer who fired at least six shots killing Guardado. Sheriffs reported that Guardado “produced” a gun, which was recovered on the scene, a fact that family members and the shop manager have been disputing. 

Listen to Memo Torres break down Andrés Guardado's case on WNYC's daily public radio show The Takeaway, here.