El Monte honors slain police officers two years after shooting

A low-key memorial outside the El Monte Police Department on Friday paid tribute to two slain officers who died two years ago in a shooting.

El Monte community members and leaders gathered at the city’s Police Department Friday, June 14, to commemorate the two-year anniversary of the fatal shooting of police officers Joseph Santana and Michael Paredes.

Floral wreaths honoring Santana, and officer, and Paredes, a sergeant, were displayed alongside a memorial that honors those who fallen in the line of duty.

Painted stones surround plaques placed on the ground with Paredes’ and Santana’s badge numbers – 565 and 706, respectively.

At noon, El Monte police officers stood over the memorial to begin a 24-hour watch – a standard procedure for when an officer dies. Every 15 minutes for 24 hours, two officers switch off to watch over Santana and Paredes’ memorial in front of the police department.

Two years ago, Santana and Paredes were responding to a 911 call from Maria Zepeda, who had reported that her daughter, Diana Flores Cruz was stabbed by her husband, Justin Flores, at the Siesta Inn.

Santana and Paredes knocked for several minutes on the door of Flores’ hotel room. When the door opened, Flores shot both officers and later killed himself.

Two years later, it was clear on Friday that a community, the officers’ families, and city staffers were still grieving.

At one point, members of the Paredes came to reflect at the solemn site.

Jake Fisher, chief of police for the El Monte Police Department, said Friday that since the day of the shooting the deaths of Santana and Paredes have been “emotionally devastating” for his department and city employees.

“We’ve come together a little more. We have a long way to go,” he said. “We preach continuous improvement [and] getting a little bit better everyday in all components and entities of the police department and in ourselves.”

Since Santana’s and Paredes’ death, the El Monte Police Department has sought to “improve operations and efficiency.”

“With the support of our city manager and majority of our city council, we’ve been given a lot of resources to make improvements,” Fisher stated.

Some of these specific internal improvements include the installation of a phone tree for all non-emergency calls. Additionally, the Computer Aided Dispatch (CAD) systems will color code and chime keywords for dispatched police officers, such as ‘knife’ or ‘gun,’ to alert potential dangers when arriving at the scene.

The improvements came amid criticism that while key information – such as Flores being high on drugs – was inputted into the responding officers’ computer-aided dispatch system at the time, it was not broadcast over the radio.

The issue, along with criticism of the District Attorney’s Office over a prior plea deal that landed Flores on probation instead of a “third strike” on his record, have given rise to tension, prompting family members’ ire at the city and county.

A lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County, L.A. County Probation, the L.A. District Attorney’s Office, D.A. George Gascón and the Siesta Inn on behalf of the Santana and Paredes families recently reached a settlement.

A judge dismissed the county defendants last year.

Fisher said they the police department community in the city is “close-knit.”

“We rely a lot on communication efforts with liaisons – whoever that is – with the family. We have been in consistent communication with them [the Paredes and Santana families] through the family liaisons through the department to try and support them as best as we can,” Fisher stated.