RivCo man convicted of killing off-duty LAPD officer in 2019

LOS ANGELES (KESQ) - A reputed gang member was convicted of first-degree murder today for fatally shooting an off-duty Los Angeles police officer in Lincoln Heights in 2019 during what prosecutors called a 90-minute crime spree.

Cristian Facundo, 27, of Temecula was also convicted of shooting into an occupied motor vehicle and vandalism. Jurors also found true a special circumstance allegation of murder by an active member of a street gang.   

He is due back in court Oct. 27, when a sentencing date will be set. Facundo is facing life in prison without the possibility of parole.   

Facundo was convicted for the July 27, 2019, shooting death of Officer Juan Jose Diaz, 24, who had been with the Los Angeles Police Department for about two years when he died. Diaz was shot around 1 a.m. outside a taco stand near Avenue 26 and Artesian Street in Lincoln Heights, where he had gone with his girlfriend and her two brothers.

A co-defendant in the case, Francisco Talamantes, pleaded guilty in 2021 to voluntary manslaughter, attempted murder and other charges and was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison.

Shortly after the killing, LAPD Capt. William Hayes told reporters that Diaz and his group spotted Facundo and a young woman walking on the other side of the street, and saw Facundo bend down and begin painting graffiti on a sidewalk. Diaz and another member of his group questioned Facundo, who became aggressive toward them and lifted his shirt to reveal that he was carrying a handgun, Hayes said.  

According to the police captain, Facundo walked away briefly, and Diaz and his group decided to leave the area and got into a vehicle. As the group was leaving the scene, Facundo and Talamantes ran along the right side of the vehicle, and Facundo fired several rounds through the rear window, striking Diaz and another man inside in a shooting that was recorded on surveillance video, Hayes said.  

The driver sped off and spotted a nearby LAPD patrol car and summoned help, Hayes said.  

Diaz died at the scene, and the other man was critically injured.   

Diaz was armed but had no chance to use his weapon to defend himself, police said.  

According to Hayes, the shooting of Diaz came amid a roughly 90-minute crime spree carried out by Facundo, Talamantes, and two young women. Hayes said that shortly after midnight July 27, the group went to the 2500 block of West Avenue 33 and vandalized a vehicle belonging to a former boyfriend of one of the women. A portion of that crime was caught on surveillance video, Hayes said.  

About 20 minutes later, the group went to the 4200 block of Eagle Rock Boulevard and painted some gang graffiti on a business in that area, after which they moved onto the area of the taco stand in Lincoln Heights, where the Diaz shooting occurred, Hayes said.

Following that shooting, the group went back to Avenue 33 and waited for the ex-boyfriend whose car the suspects had vandalized earlier, Hayes said. When that person appeared, one of the suspects tried to open fire, but the weapon malfunctioned, and nobody was injured, Hayes said.

The defendants were arrested Aug. 2 of that year.   

Diaz was a native of the northeast Los Angeles area and grew up wanting to become a police officer.  

"Our officer was doing everything he could (by leaving the scene), and why they chose to do this, I believe, is that the bravado or just the senseless lack of any respect for life to go out and exact violence like this for such a trivial matter of someone making a mention to a person doing something wrong is intolerable and I look forward to justice being served as to consequences,'' then-LAPD Chief Michel Moore said at the time.