Sunday 19 June 2022 01:55 PM Grieving mom of murdered LA cop blasts George Gascon woke policies trends now
The heartbroken mother of fallen Los Angeles police officer killed earlier this week condemned Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascon's woke policies claiming that her son would still be alive today if suspect wasn't back on the streets.
Olga Garcia, the mother of slain El Monte Police Officer Joseph Anthony Santana, 31, was shot dead and his partner Cpl. Michael Domingo Paredes, 42, on Tuesday afternoon in a motel shootout in suburban Los Angeles.
'I blame the death of my son and his partner on Gascón,' Garcia said through tears at a news conference Friday outside police headquarters, Spectrum1 News reported.
'Gascón will never know how I feel. Gascón will never know how he destroyed our families. He won't know how his { Santana's]children feel,' Garcia said, in part.'
Both officers were responding to a call of a stabbing at a motel in El Monte, California on Tuesday afternoon.
The shooter, Justin William Flores 35, a gang member was on probation for a prior gun charge at the time of the shooting.
Flores shot himself dead during the shootout.
The illegal handgun sentence was handed to Flores in 2021, as part of a lenient plea deal made possible by lax prosecution laws from the local DA.
Olga Garcia, the mother of slain officer, Joseph Anthony Santana, spoke of her frustration with the system and claimed that her son and his partner would still be alive and if the serial criminal killer wasn't back out on the streets
During a FOX News interview, Garcia called out Gascon saying he has 'insane ideas about giving criminals a slap (on) the hand.'
'We need death row and three-strikes law to come back. We need to enforce our laws so more police officers don't die,' she said.
Garcia spoke of her frustration with the system and claimed that her son and his partner would still be alive and if the serial criminal killer wasn't back out on the streets.
'Gascon is just letting all these criminals out and they just keep doing one crime after the other,' Garcia said, in part. 'That guy should have been in jail.'
She added: 'Los Angeles District Attorney George Gascón gives criminals more rights than police officers.'
Los Angeles DA George Gascon - who was sworn into office in late 2020 as part of a wave of woke prosecutors who vowed to seek alternatives to incarceration - he received the bare minimum sentence of two years probation, and 20 days' jail time. The plea deal also saw prosecutors drop drug charges against Flores, who was accused of possessing methamphetamine, as well as ammunition for the illegal handgun
A photo of slain El Monte Police officer Joseph Anthony Santana, 31, and father of three, was killed when responded to a call of stabbing at a motel in a suburb in Los Angeles on Tuesday
Officer Santana pictured here with his wife and three children
Gascon's office told Fox News that Flores didn't have a 'documented history of violence' when he was sentenced.
According to sources from the DA's office, Flores would have likely been handed a sentence of up to three years in prison if he was prosecuted in February 2021, the news outlet reported.
'The sentence he received in the firearm case was consistent with case resolutions for this type of offense
and the nature of the offense,' the statement says. 'At the time the court sentenced him, Mr. Flores did not have a documented history of violence.'
What happened next remains unclear, but a source familiar with the matter said the officers, El Monte Police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana, came under fire after knocking on a door to one of the motel's rooms.
El Monte Police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana died in the shootout, which cops said occurred just after 4:30 pm local time.
It has since been revealed that Flores possessed a lengthy rap sheet for offenses stretching back more than a decade at the time of the shooting, and had been prohibited from carrying a gun since 2011.
The case has subsequently sparked outrage, with many criticizing Los Angeles' district attorney George Gascon for woke policies that saw Flores out of jail at the time of the shooting.
The illegal handgun sentence was handed to 35 year-old Justin William Flores in 2021, as part of a lenient plea deal made possible by lax prosecution laws from the local DA
Last year, Flores - already on parole for pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm, a felony charge that law enforcement sources said should have sent him back to prison for a minimum of three years.
However, because of Gascon - who was sworn into office in late 2020 as part of a wave of woke prosecutors who vowed to seek alternatives to incarceration - he received the bare minimum sentence of two years probation, and 20 days' jail time.
The plea deal also saw prosecutors drop drug charges against Flores, who was accused of possessing methamphetamine, as well as ammunition for the illegal handgun.
Flores served the 20 days in early 2021, and was out on the street by February of that year, court records reveal.
What's more, the day before the shooting, Flores was requested by his parole officer to appear in court due to a probation violation incurred after his girlfriend reported he had assaulted her last week,
Flores, however, was not taken into custody.
The hearing was set for June 27, court records show.
Asked why Flores wasn't arrested on the violation Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Probation Department told DailyMail.com the agency was 'currently investigating the matter further.'
The sentence is in accordance with the policies of Gascon, who has been vocal about his belief that the criminal justice system needs to focus more on intervention and rehabilitation than incarceration, blasting 'tough on crime' policies as racist and a failure.
He was was recently taken to task by a state appeals court over his refusal to prosecute three-strike cases, a law that seeks to impose harsher sentences on individuals who have been convicted of certain felonies three times.
The law allowed Flores - who was facing his third strike - to plead no contest and receive a light sentence despite having a previous gun strike on his criminal record.
Flores' first strike stems from a conviction for burglarizing his grandparent's home more than a decade ago.
Sources in the district attorney's office told Fox News that if Flores had been prosecuted prior to Gascon's implementation of the policy in February 2021, he would likely have been hit with the full three years for the gun charge.
Flores was killed during the confrontation with the cops, which transpired after they responded to a call of a stabbing at the Scenic Motel (pictured) in El Monte, a suburb in LA
When asked about the sentence Wednesday, Gascon's office defended the decision not to hand Flores a harsher sentence.
'The sentence he received in the firearm case was consistent with case resolutions for this type of offense given his criminal history and the nature of the offense,' a spokesperson said in a statement.
'At the time the court sentenced him, Mr. Flores did not have a documented history of violence.'
Flores previously served two prison stints
