A coroner has determined that Justin Flores, the 35-year-old gangster who shot and killed two California cops on Tuesday, died by suicide.
The dead gangster shot and killed El Monte police Cpl. Michael Paredes and Officer Joseph Santana while they were responding to a domestic disturbance.
Flores had died from a gunshot wound to the head, but it was not immediately clear who fired the shot, as a shootout was underway.
According to the coroner’s report, the fatal shot that took out Flores was fired from his own gun.
The New York Post reports that, “Progressive LA County District Attorney George Gascón has faced mounting scrutiny over the shooting, with Santana’s mother blaming the prosecutor for her son’s death.”
“He pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm last year, and could have been sentenced to up to three years in prison — but was slapped with probation and 20 days in jail instead under a deal with Gascón’s office,” the report says.
The prosecutor’s office has defended the light sentencing.
“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,” the DA’s office said in a statement. “At the time the court sentenced him, Mr. Flores did not have a documented history of violence.”
The day before the double homicide, Flores allegedly stabbed his wife.
His wife, Diana Flores, had been trying to escape from him when he tracked her down.
“I am so deeply sorry. My deepest condolences for saving me,” Flores said in an interview with CBS Los Angeles. “I’m so, so, so, sorry. They didn’t deserve that, or their families. They really didn’t. They were trying to help me.”
The woman claims that she told police not to go in because he had a gun. They went anyways and the shots began to ring out.
“I didn’t want nobody to get hurt in this,” she said. “The only one who was getting hurt was me, and now two other innocent.”
