Gascón, LA County Probation Department Sued Over El Monte Officers’ Deaths

In honor of two El Monte police officers killed in a recent motel shooting, hundreds of community members, law enforcement officers, and family members gathered at a candlelight vigil outside the El Monte Civic Center in El Monte, Calif., on June 18, 2022. Linda Jiang/The Epoch Times

LOS ANGELES—Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, his office and the county Probation Department are being sued for wrongful death by relatives of one of two El Monte police officers who was fatally shot by a convicted felon at an El Monte motel last June, the plaintiffs’ attorneys announced May 4.

The Los Angeles Superior Court complaint lawsuit brought by family members of the late Officer Joseph Santana states that Justin Flores, 35, was placed on probation in a plea deal in 2021 after he was arrested in 2020 for being a felon in possession of a firearm and methamphetamine. Even though Flores had a prior felony conviction for burglary, Gascón issued a directive barring the prosecutor handling Flores’s case from filing a strike allegation against Flores, the suit states.