Their daughter killed herself with a deputy's gun. They're still looking for answers

LOS ANGELES -- When he got home from work early on a Sunday afternoon in March, Alex Gutierrez called for his youngest daughter and smiled as she popped out of her room to greet him.

She was usually buoyant and effusive, but this time she really hammed it up, hugging and kissing the case of Propel Fitness Water he'd brought home from the store. That it was her favorite seemed only fitting for a girl always in motion.

The 67-year-old La Puente man laughed at his teen's performance, then headed inside to take a nap.

In the past, 17-year-old Johanna Gonzalez had struggled with mental health problems, hearing voices and flying into uncontrollable fits and outbursts. But today seemed to be a good day.

Then, around 7 p.m. Gutierrez woke up to the sounds of angry voices. Johanna screamed at her mother, then flew out of the house. The winter sky was already dark, but the teen stormed to the nearest sheriff's station about a mile away.

She banged on the door until a deputy strolled up, stretching his right arm across his body toward the handle — and leaving the gun on his right hip exposed as he answered.

Without hesitation, Johanna plucked the gun out of its holster, kicking off a struggle. A leaked video of the incident reviewed by The Times showed the deputy punching the girl twice, apparently in an ill-fated attempt to disarm her.

Less than 20 seconds later, Johanna shot herself in the head. She died on the floor of the Industry Sheriff's Station.

"It's just unbelievable," Gutierrez told The Times in an interview. "How can a 17-year-old girl so easily disarm a sheriff's deputy?"

More than a month later, that's one of the many unresolved questions about what happened that night inside the sheriff's station. Johanna's parents have questions about the deputy's training. The family's lawyer wants to know the deputy's name. And several people within the department have raised questions about why his weapon wasn't better secured and what kind of holster he was using.

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