A Santa Clarita man arrested for allegedly shooting a deputy in the neck had been on parole in Newhall for a little over a month on assault and evading arrest convictions, a Homicide Bureau lieutenant said Thursday.
Monolito Guerra, 29, of Newhall, was arrested on Oct. 15, 2014 and ultimately sentenced to state prison on Feb. 2, 2016, to terms of 4 years, 5 years and 8 months, to be served concurrently, for a pair of felony evading arrest and assault with a deadly weapon convictions, respectively, according to Sheriff’s Department officials.
Guerra served less than two years before he received parole on Oct. 19, 2017. He returned to Santa Clarita, and not long after, he was shot multiple times in a shootout with Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies, after allegedly shooting at a deputy on Bottletree Lane, according to Lt. Joe Mendoza, of the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau, who’s part of the investigation for Guerra’s most recent allegations.
“The suspect paroled to the city of Santa Clarita on Oct. 19, 2017,” Mendoza said, “and then (a little more than) a month later, he tried to kill a deputy.”
The Sheriff’s Department’s Homicide Bureau investigators handle all investigations into officer-involved shootings, regardless of whether it’s a fatal shooting, as a matter of procedure.
The Santa Clarita deputy who suffered a “through-and-through” gunshot to the neck while investigating the report of an assault with a deadly weapon in Newhall on Nov. 28 — which was the precursor to the shootout that left both the deputy and Guerra wounded — was released from hospital, and is expected to make a full recovery, according to station officials. The bullet entered into one side of his neck and out the other end less than an inch away from his spine.
Guerra was hospitalized with multiple non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.
He was transferred from Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital to a Sheriff’s Department medical ward downtown at the USC Medical Center on Dec. 10, according to department records.
He’s currently being held in connection with a parole violation, in the medical ward. Detectives expect to file additional charges on him with respect to November’s shooting, in January.
