Seven years after an off-duty LAPD officer was gunned down near a Lincoln Heights taco stand, Cristian Facundo has been convicted of first-degree murder in the killing. The case centers on a late-night confrontation that turned deadly as the officer and his companions tried to drive away.
Facundo was also convicted of shooting into an occupied motor vehicle and vandalism, and faces life in prison without the possibility of parole, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. Prosecutors established that he acted as an active member of a street gang when he killed Officer Juan Jose Diaz.
Diaz was 24 and had served with the Los Angeles Police Department for about two years when he was killed on July 27, 2019. The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Facundo opened fire during a confrontation, killing Diaz at the scene and critically injuring another man.
The shooting followed an encounter over graffiti, according to contemporaneous reporting by CBS Los Angeles. Investigators said Facundo revealed a handgun after becoming aggressive, then fired several rounds through the rear window as Diaz and the others attempted to leave.
A 90-Minute Crime Spree Preceded The Killing
Prosecutors said Facundo, Francisco Talamantes and two young women spent roughly 90 minutes vandalizing a vehicle, painting gang graffiti and returning to confront a former boyfriend of one of the women. The attempted shooting at that second location failed when the weapon malfunctioned, and nobody was injured, the Daily News reported.
Talamantes later pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder and other charges, receiving a sentence of more than 10 years in prison in 2021. Facundo and Talamantes were arrested on Aug. 2, 2019, after LAPD detectives served search warrants in the Inland Empire and identified them as suspects in Diaz’s killing.
Officer Was Killed While Trying To Leave
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office said Diaz had been off duty when he encountered the group near Avenue 26 and Artesian Street. The department described the shooting as part of a case that included surveillance video and a separate attempted attack after the fatal gunfire.
The conviction closes the trial phase of a case that shook the LAPD and Northeast Los Angeles, but Facundo’s punishment will be determined at sentencing. Diaz’s funeral drew a large crowd in the Hollywood Hills days after his death, as colleagues and community members remembered an officer killed while trying to avoid a violent confrontation.
