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Erick Barbosa-Guardado

Age : 19

Gender : Male

Race : Latino/a/e

Date : 02/16/2023

Location : Nordhoff Street and Tampa Avenue

City : Northridge

County : Los Angeles

State : California

Agency : Los Angeles Police Department

Officer(s) :Not Disclosed

Cause of Death : Vehicle

Event : Bystander killed by police chase crash

OPEN RECORDS SUMMARY :

On 02/16/2023, around 12:30 a.m., Los Angeles Police Department officers attempted to stop a dark-colored SUV at White Oak Avenue and Roscoe Boulevard in Northridge. Police said the SUV and its two passengers were wanted in connection with an armed robbery committed the previous day and had been identified as armed and dangerous. The driver continued west on Roscoe Boulevard while police pursued. The pursuit covered approximately half a mile before the SUV ran a red light at Lindley Avenue and struck a black sedan traveling south through the intersection.
The sedan’s driver, Erick Barbosa-Guardado, 19, of Reseda, was pronounced dead at the scene. Barbosa-Guardado was returning home after working an evening shift at a department store. He was a sophomore at California State University, Northridge, where he was studying civil engineering and theater. He also worked at a TJ Maxx store in Tarzana, where the company said he had made a strong impression on his coworkers despite having worked there only a short time.
The two people in the SUV left the wreckage and continued running away on foot. Officers established a perimeter and arrested the person police believed had been driving the SUV. The second person remained at large when the initial reports were published. Police recovered a loaded rifle from inside the SUV. The identities of the arrested driver, the second person and the pursuing officers were not released in the available reporting.
Barbosa-Guardado’s aunt, Socorro Barbosa, spoke publicly at the crash scene. She described him as a good young man with important dreams and expressed anger that he had been killed while simply driving home. His death received additional attention because he was at least the fifth uninvolved person killed during Southern California law-enforcement pursuits within approximately one month. Two men had been killed during an LAPD pursuit in Panorama City on January 31, and a husband and wife were killed following another pursuit near Lynwood and South Gate on February 5.
LAPD Lieutenant Letisia Ruiz defended the decision to pursue, stating that officers must balance the danger created by a chase against the danger posed by someone considered armed and dangerous. Barbosa-Guardado’s death nevertheless occurred amid renewed scrutiny of LAPD pursuit practices. A previous Los Angeles Times analysis found that approximately one in ten LAPD pursuits from 2006 through 2014 resulted in injuries to civilians, and a Los Angeles County civil grand jury concluded that police pursuits were causing unnecessary bystander deaths and injuries and required improved training and oversight.
No pursuing officers were publicly identified in the available reports, and no publicly released body-camera or dash-camera footage specific to the pursuit was located. News video and photographs documented the heavily damaged vehicles and the crash scene.

SOURCE LINKS :

https://abc7.com/northridge-pursuit-crash-erick-barbosa-guardado/10930363/
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-02-16/bystander-killed-car-crash-lapd-pursuit-northridge
https://patch.com/california/northridge/1-dead-following-police-pursuit-crash-northridge
https://mynewsla.com/crime/2023/02/16/one-killed-in-collision-during-police-chase-in-northridge-suspect-arrested-3/
https://www.audacy.com/knxnews/news/local/one-killed-in-collision-during-police-chase-in-northridge