California cops fatally shoot 18-year-old security guard after he reportedly drew his weapon and ran in fear

Los Angeles police officers fatally shot a local security guard after he reportedly drew his weapon and ran in fear Thursday night.

The man's family members identified the victim as 18-year-old Andres Guardado.

What are the details?

Guardado, a security guard at Freeway auto shop, was on duty to protect the business from vandals, KABC-TV said.

Officers were reportedly patrolling the area when they spotted Guardado. Guardado reportedly pulled out a weapon upon seeing the officers and ran away from the business.

During a press briefing, Lt. Charles Calderaro said, "Deputies observed the individual, at which point he observed the deputies. The individual began running away from deputies, and at some point during the encounter, a deputy-involved shooting occurred."

Calderaro added that Guardado was not wearing a security uniform at the time of the fatal shooting.

Guardado was pronounced dead at the scene.

"The suspect was struck by gunfire in the upper torso and was pronounced dead at the scene," Deputy James Nagao of the Sheriff's Information Bureau said via statement. "No deputies were injured during the incident."

Andrew Heney, identified by KABC as the auto shop's owner, explained, "We had a security guard that was out front, because we had just had certain issues with people tagging and stuff like that. ... And then the police came up, and they pulled their guns on him and he ran because he was scared, and they shot and killed him."

"He's got a clean background and everything," Heney added. "There's no reason."

According to a department spokesperson, deputies reportedly witnessed Guardado produce a handgun before running away.

"Deputies engaged in a short foot pursuit between the two businesses, at some point the deputies contacted the suspect and that's when the deputy-involved shooting occurred," the spokesperson explained.

The spokesperson also noted that a handgun was retrieved from the scene, but family members insisted that Guardado was not armed.

Guardado's sister said that her brother "always worked as a professional security guard."

"He had no armed weapons on him," she insisted. "None."

Guardado's family showed up at the crime scene and got into a heated argument with members of the police, demanding to know what happened.

Investigations by the Sheriff's Homicide and Internal Affairs bureaus are underway.