Los Angeles DA Gascon defends record and denies double cop killer experienced violent past

Tori Richards

June 21, 09:18 PM June 21, 09:49 PM

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon defended his conclusion to continue to keep a guy out of jail who would go on to become the killer of two law enforcement officers, declaring the perpetrator experienced “no history of violence” in spite of an try by his probation officer to place him back again guiding bars.

“The final result in this certain scenario ... was correct,” Gascon reported during a Tuesday press conference. “[Justin] Flores had no historical past of violence and incredibly little contact with the criminal justice process for 10 a long time.”

As a motion to remember him heats up, Gascon took the uncommon action of commenting on a controversy encompassing his perceived anti-victim insurance policies. In this case, two police officers have been shot to death by a felon who would have continue to been in jail if Gascon experienced not made available him a plea discount for a 20-day sentence final 12 months, reported previous Los Angeles County District Lawyer Steve Cooley.

LOS ANGELES COUNTY DA Policy PAYS FOR FUNERAL OF COP KILLER

In addition, Fox News has reported that Flores experienced a string of misdemeanor circumstances among a very first-diploma burglary felony in 2011 and the June 14 shooting of El Monte police officers Michael Paredes and Joseph Santana. The officers were being responding to a 911 contact of a attainable stabbing in a motel area when they were being shot by Flores.

Afterward, Flores ran to the parking whole lot, in which supplemental law enforcement officers killed him. As information of the shooting unfolded, Flores’s felony historical past was created general public, and anger ensued in the community.

"This unique has a document from 2009 all the way up to 2022. He was concerned in the criminal justice procedure for much more than 10 decades with two felonies, numerous convictions, and firearm violations," Deputy District Legal professional Jonathan Hatami, a regular Gascon critic, mentioned. "He was an admitted gang member and committing domestic violence versus his spouse in advance of the murders."

In 2021, Flores was arrested on expenses of possessing narcotics and a gun and ammunition in violation of his probation, Hatami explained.

By dismissing the ammunition charge, Gascon was equipped to stay clear of a necessary 32-month sentence, Cooley claimed.

“A felon in possession of a gun suggests a particular person may well have a tendency for violence,” Cooley explained. “And [the] pretty fact that he ended up murdering two police officers with a gun is somber proof of that. Gascon is placing things in the ideal probable mild presented his failed insurance policies in this occasion. But for Gascon’s directives, Flores would’ve been incarcerated as of the day of the murders.”

But Gascon disputed this, declaring the technique is not great.

“When individuals are arrested for really serious crimes, we work really hard to make sure that there are major consequences, including lengthy intervals of incarceration,” he said.

A spokesperson for Gascon reported the place of work would not fork out for Flores’s funeral but refused to solution messages from the Washington Examiner with regards to how a deviation from the policy is allowed to manifest.