George Gascón, the Los Angeles County district attorney who is under fire from his political detractors, after the murder of two police officers from the city of El Monte, announced that the suspect to shoot down officers Joseph Anthony Santana and Michael Domingo Paredes was a drug addict who, for several years, had had no contact with the police authorities.
In a heated press conference, Gascón offered his condolences to the families of officers Santana and Paredes.
“His death shocks us all; this is a very difficult time for our community and I understand why many are angry and angry,” he said. “I feel the same.”
A little over a week ago, law enforcement officers were gunned down during a shootout in the Siesta Inn motel, located at 10327 Garvey Avenue, in El Monte. Both had responded to a report of a stabbing.
Both Paredes, aged 35, and Santana, of 31, confronted and murdered the suspect in a motel room where the shooting occurred; Flores ran out into the parking lot, continued the shooting, and then killed himself. The officers were transported to Los Angeles County USC Medical Center, where they both died.
“We would all like to predict when someone is going to commit a crime, but the reality is that it is not so” , indicated the prosecutor, who added that, in the case of Flores, “we know that he had a history of drug use and crimes related to his addiction.”
The last crime that involved Justin William Flores, aged 35, committed it against his grandfather, from whom he stole a television.
“At that time I was drugged,” said Gascón. “He was under the influence of drugs.”
Diana Flores, the suspect’s wife, who was in the motel room, said in an interview with CBS2 that she tried to warn the police officers that Justin was armed, when they arrived to help her.
Before the press, George Gascón assured that Justin William Flores passed many years without contact with the judicial system and in the case where he himself lost his life, he would be arrested because he was in possession of drugs for personal use and a firearm.
Flores, a felon with a history of arrests, received a plea deal last year that allowed him to avoid prison, after being in possession of a firearm.
As a result of guilty plea, methamphetamine possession and being a felon in possession of ammunition charges Flores served 20 days in jail and was placed in two years in liberty conditional.
“The resolution in this case was appropriate, based on what we knew at the time”, justified the prosecutor district. “It is important to recognize that when there are serious crimes, there will be serious consequences.”
He was referring to the fact that the criminal justice system of Los Angeles, the state of California and the United States send people to jail for a long time, “although the judicial system is not perfect”.
“Not only in Los Angeles, but throughout the country we have to make sure that we continue to do the things that we know give results”, he indicated.
He gave as an example the assistance for those people who are on parole; who receive rehabilitation services or the 95% of prisoners who return to prison.
“We have to provide services to those who suffer from trauma, from mental problems or addictions,” he said. “These are the services that we know work and we need to avoid over-incarceration and not go back to the times when we made too many mass incarceration mistakes, which didn’t help us to be safer.”
Therefore, -he added-, “many would argue that past policies have given these results”.
Mass incarceration in California
Indeed, the United States is the first country in the world that incarcerates the most its people (2.2 million people), while China, with a population three times higher, has 1.6 million people behind bars and Russia, 418,000.
Among the total number of inmates in the United States, the World Prison report Brief, an online data site run by the Institute for Justice and Crime Policy Research (ICPR) notes that in California there are only 95,000 prisoners, although it is surpassed by Texas, with 154,479. Most of them are people of color: Latinos and African-Americans.
Gascón, who is facing impeachment, responded to The Opinion about his detractors by first saying that he was at the press conference to explain to the community what happened the afternoon of the tragedy.
“Unfortunately these tragedies happen very often in our communities; we have many firearms and we don’t have proper systems to deal with people who have addiction or mental health issues; Unfortunately, this tragedy is being used for political purposes,” he explained.
In an email sent to the Los Angeles Times, Ricardo Santiago, spokesman for District Attorney George Gascón, said that “experienced managers ” had reviewed the Flores case and determined that the offer given to the author of the two murders of the bailiffs was consistent with those offered by previous administrations.
Santiago also said that the prosecutors assigned to the case could have challenged Gascón’s policy if they had believed that the Flores case was “extraordinary”.
The community continues in mourning
In front of the Civic Center building in the city of El Monte, mourners continue to arrive daily to lay bouquets of flowers on the various improvised altars in honor of officers Michael Domingo Paredes and Joseph Anthony Santana.
“The tragedy that occurred is very unfortunate,” he said. Alfred Canal, who arrived accompanied by his wife Candy to offer his prayers in front of the photographs of the officers fallen in the line of duty.
“No one can control the mind of a criminal, and less if he is insane”, she said. “
Last Friday, during a press conference, Olga García, Santana’s mother declared that the policies implemented by the district attorney were the cause of her son’s death.
“I blame Gascón for the death of my son and his partner”, said García.
Héctor Becerra, owner of a butcher shop in Ontario, agreed with her, who said: “The fault falls on Gascón for his policies on criminals.”
Rudy disagreed Torres, who has lived in El Monte for a decade.
“Why do they blame him? No one can judge anyone for what he did a criminal, ”said Torres, who is from Zacatecas. “There are many people who already have evil in their blood.”
Meanwhile, the fundraiser initiated by Ronald Danison, of the California Peace Officers Research Association to help to the relatives of the murdered police officers had collected $328, 81.81 at the close of this edition.