(Video Credit: CBS Los Angeles)
Two California police officers were tragically gunned down by a suspect who was on probation for illegally possessing a firearm and had been banned from carrying a gun since 2011.
Justin Flores, 35, was the alleged killer who took down El Monte Police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana at a motel in Los Angeles on Tuesday. The officers had responded to a report of a stabbing.
Paredes and Santana came under fire by Flores after knocking on the door of a room at the Siesta Inn Tuesday afternoon. The shooting incident began in the motel room and ended in the parking lot with the suspect and both officers dead.
Flores had served two prison terms for burglary and car theft. He pleaded no contest to possessing a gun last winter, according to the Los Angeles Times.
It is with heavy hearts that The City of El Monte & The El Monte Police Department announce the passing of Corporal Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana. Corporal Paredes & Officer Santana were killed in the line of duty, while faithfully carrying out their sworn duties 🙏🏼 pic.twitter.com/wIzwjy6Iga
— El Monte PD (@elmontepolice) June 15, 2022
Prosecutors dismissed two counts when Flores entered the plea; one for being a felon in possession of ammunition and another for being in possession of methamphetamine. The weapons charge potentially could have sent Flores back to prison for three years. Instead, he got a slap on the wrist and got two years probation with 20 days of time served.
Court records also reportedly show at least a dozen other prosecutions, many ended with no contest pleas and probationary sentences, for charges such as driving with a suspended license, being under the influence of a controlled substance, and resisting arrest. Flores had a long rap sheet.
The day before the officers were killed, Flores’ probation officer filed for a revocation hearing following the alleged assault of his girlfriend last week, according to a report from the police.
Flores was allowed to remain free and on his own recognizance ahead of his June 27 hearing. The Los Angeles County Probation Department is now investigating why Flores was not arrested over the violation. Many blame lax leftist policies implemented by California Democrats.
https://twitter.com/jessancona/status/1536989339271409664
Flores’ wife, Diana, claimed that she tried to warn the officers that her husband had a gun before he shot and killed them. She told CBSLA that she had called 911 on her husband and that she was deeply sorry for what he did as the officers tried to save her.
She had gone to the motel to hide from her husband after he stabbed her the day before, according to NBC Los Angeles. He followed her there. The terrified wife fled the motel when the officers arrived and the shooting started.
“I love my husband to death but … this wasn’t my husband. This was a monster,” Diana Flores claimed.
“I didn’t want anyone to get hurt in this,” she told NBC in an interview. “I am so deeply sorry. They didn’t deserve that, or their families. They really didn’t. They were trying to help me and I told them before they went in the room, ‘Don’t go in. He has a gun.'”
(Video Credit: CBS Los Angeles)
“We don’t have all the facts yet,” El Monte Mayor Jessica Ancona commented. She said the officers were “essentially ambushed.”
Both officers were from the San Gabriel Vally city of El Monte with a population of approximately 110,000. There was a massive outpouring of support, grief, and honor for the two hometown heroes killed in the line of duty.
“They grew up here; to us, they’re El Monte homegrown,” Ancona sadly declared. “They’re our boys.”
“They were good men,” Capt. Ben Lowry, the El Monte Police Department’s acting chief, told the Los Angeles Times. “These two heroes paid the ultimate sacrifice today. They were murdered by a coward.”
A police station memorial filled with candles and flowers was laid out in their honor. It was adorned with US flags and “thank you” signs left by community residents.
(Video Credit: KTLA 5)
“Corporal Paredes and Officer Santana paid the ultimate sacrifice,” the city of El Monte wrote in a press release, “while in performance of a noble profession, serving the community they loved.”
Santana was 31 years old. He is survived by his wife, twin sons, and a daughter.
Paredes was 42 years old and a 22-year veteran of the force. He leaves behind his wife, a son, and a daughter.
There have only been two other officers in the department who have died in the line of duty before the deaths of Santana and Paredes, according to the Los Angeles Times.
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10 thoughts on “Calif cop killer who viciously gunned down two cops had been slapped on wrist since 2011 for gun crimes”
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So, Democrats will only enforce gun laws against their political opponents? Which is what the red flag laws are ALL ABOUT. Just ask everyone whose career was destroyed for not getting a vaccination…..
It seems democrats value their criminals more than they value law abiding citizens. Too much trouble for AG’s to do their jobs, and democrats protect them, while we have to pay their salaries, for not doing their jobs. Also, take a look at why we should be paying Biden, Kamala, Mayorkas, and others, who seem to make excuses and do little else. Just look at the shape the country is in with the way Biden and Mayorkas, especially, are supposedly doing their jobs. What a waste of money, IMO.
This is what Democrats do. They coddle, make excuses for and try to understand or rehabilitate true criminals who abuse their 2nd Amendment rights all the while blaming the gun, now gun manufacturers, and writing laws to disarm or severely restrict law abiding gun owners. They also never address the fact criminals often obtain their guns illegally and will continue to do so no matter how many laws they impose on the population and effectively restricting our ability to protect ourselves and our families. Tell me, Democrats, how are you going to apply your laws to criminals or disarm them? And how many of the thousands of small arms and even hand held true weapons of war Puppet Biden gave to the Taliban when he prematurely pulled our military out of Afghanistan are going to find their way to the black market and eventually end up in the US in the hands of terrorists?
Just one of many reasons I’ll never give my guns to the government. As if there wasn’t enough evidence out there in various forms to prove that their push for new gun control wasn’t about “gun violence”, these situations surely stamp their true agenda with a seal of validation. They want all of our guns as the final play in the marxist/socialist handbook. The recent gun control measures that those few RINOs went along with is that little thread on a sweater that you never want to pull. The left has no plans at stopping with just this one bill that has been passed. If the LEFT gave a $h&T about gun violence, the thug they’re talking about in this article would have never been on the street to take the lives of these officers.
“Instead, he got a slap on the wrist and got two years probation with 20 days of time served.”
Gun control would not have prevented this. Enforcing existing laws would have. Dem policies FAIL ON EVERY LEVEL.
Yet they want to take guns away from people who committed no crimes.
Hey beto why didn’t you take this POSs gun?
As is ALWAYS the case when reading these things…..it is ALWAYS a multiple-repeat-offender doing his most recent criminal activity…..but the left-leaning press and LibDems always blame the “Gun”…..;.NEVER the real cause….REVOLVING-DOOR JUDICIAL SYSTEM. This guy… like SO MANY others….should have been put away off the streets after his FIRST MAJOR criminal act. Seems to be a too far-fetched concept…for anyone today living in ClownWorld to fully understand and act on. So… we will continue seeing this, EVEN AFTER any new anti-gun laws are enacted. Hey lawmaker idiots !…. the mere act of killing or trying to do so is ALREADY ILLEGAL…and we have tons of existing anti-gun laws…so WHERE is your HISTORY OF SUCCESS to prove having more laws will work? Why isn’t anyone saying this?
But of course. I mean, didn’t we learn from the authority on all things guns, Alec Baldwin, that guns just mysteriously fire on their own?
WAIT….. Is this another situation where that bad gun jumped into the hands of a good person , and fired itself killing 2 cops in the process ? I am NOT making light of this situation, as this pathetic display of rampant crime across America is unconscionable, HOWEVER , it is times like these that these stories need to be shoved down the throats of every Dummycrat espousing drastic gun control measures that will only affect law abiding citizens. These career criminals , that SHOUL:D be behind bars, DO NOT obey laws……How hard is it for the idiots on the left to understand this ?
Where are spotlight seeking A-Hole dummycrats for this story ?
I am sick of the BS, and so should you be !
Had enough YET , America ?