Sheriff’s deputy feared he would die after being shot

A Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective testified Thursday that he thought he was going to die after being shot in the neck by a man he had confronted in a parked car during a search near a Newhall apartment complex in 2017.

“I hear a bang. Everything went pitch black,” sheriff’s Detective Albert White — who was a sheriff’s deputy at the time — told jurors during his emotional account in the trial of Monolito Guerra, 35, who is charged with attempted murder of a peace officer and other counts.

White said he felt an “instant burning sensation” to his neck, pulled his own gun’s trigger as he regained consciousness about a “split second” later, said he heard a second gunshot behind him and felt a sharp pain to the back after the nighttime shooting Nov. 28, 2017.

He said he subsequently saw his assailant hunched over as if he was in excruciating pain. He said he also realized blood was gushing out of his own neck.

White told the downtown Los Angeles jury that he heard a barrage of gunfire, including one shot he saw fired by a fellow sheriff’s deputy, and said other sheriff’s deputies came to his aid as he ran from the scene. He said he was worried that if he laid down that he would never get back up again and told them that he needed to call his wife.

Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall asked White if he thought he was going to die at that point.

“I did,” the prosecution’s first witness testified.

White said he had approached a white Ford Fusion while checking a row of parked vehicles outside the apartment complex on Bottletree Lane following a 911 call from a woman who said a man had pointed a gun at her, and said he saw a sunshade propped up in the back of the car and subsequently spotted a man on the back seat of the vehicle.

He said that it was “pretty dark” at the time and that he could see the man’s eyes fluttering back and forth, but didn’t remember seeing his face.

White said he opened one of the vehicle’s back doors and ordered the suspect to freeze, and subsequently saw him tuck a revolver into his waistband. He said he raised his face to yell at other sheriff’s deputies to alert them and fixated on the weapon — not the suspect — when he saw it about five to six inches from his chin before the “gun goes bang.”

He is expected to continue his testimony Friday.

The prosecutor told jurors in his opening statement that the injured deputy was rushed to the hospital in a sheriff’s patrol vehicle and that firefighters saved Guerra’s life. The gun that Guerra had allegedly wielded, which was found next to him, had been fired four times, according to the prosecutor.

“His motivation is to escape justice,” Siddall told jurors.

Guerra had been involved in two other gun-related confrontations — one involving the woman the same day and another involving a family who was allegedly shot at while driving in Northridge four days earlier, according to the deputy district attorney.

Defense attorney Tony McAuley told jurors that he believes they will find reasonable doubt in the case, saying that there will be no evidence from body-worn cameras and that the panel will be asked to rely solely on the testimony of sheriff’s deputies.

“They have created a narrative to protect their own deputies and implicate Mr. Guerra,” the deputy alternate public defender said.

McAuley urged jurors to “call into question the order of the shots.”

He cited “a number of charges” against Guerra, telling the jury that the case is “about quantity over quality.”

The District Attorney’s Office concluded under Jackie Lacey’s administration in 2019 that White and three other sheriff’s deputies acted lawfully in shooting at Guerra, who appeared in court in a wheelchair.

Then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell said shortly after the shooting that the deputy had suffered a “through-and-through” wound to his neck.

“A quarter of an inch either way, it would have taken out his carotid (artery) or his spine. … So we’re just very thankful that the results were what they were,” McDonnell said then.

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