It's been a year since 23-year-old Nicolas Gutierrez drove into a group of Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department recruits while they were out on a training run in Whittier, killing one recruit and injuring dozens of others.
After 11 months of investigation, Gutierrez was arrested last week and charged with 11 felonies, including vehicular manslaughter and reckless driving in connection with the death of Alex Martinez and injuries of 24 recruits.
The crash, itself, is a lasting memory for the leaders of the Training Academy. The captain remembers when he learned the news about Academy Class 464.
“I was driving from the locker room to this office. My phone rang, and it was one of the drill instructors that was calling me,” LASD Capt. Pat Macdonald said. “So I answered the phone and I was told by our sergeant who was out there with them on the run that, in his words, he said ‘Hey sir, I’m out here with class 464 and a car just took out the entire class.'”
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Joshua Aguas broke his leg and was one of two dozen recruits injured.
“There were some recruits on the ground, some of them conscious, some of them unconscious, in various states of injury,” Aguas said. “I remember that it happened so quick that we all began running around and trying to figure out where we could be helpful.”
“We were on the radio trying to get assisting units, which was one of the biggest assistance requests I’ve been a part of,” Capt. Macdonald said. “It appeared that the entire class was either injured or the classmates that either weren’t injured or less injured than others were attending to the needs of the other injured recruits.”
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Macdonald said due to their injuries, seven recruits haven’t returned to the academy and sadly, the crash resulted in the death of one man. Alex Martinez died in July.
“Alex Martinez was a young man who was in the Army National Guard and had a college degree from Cal. State Northridge in kinesiology. He was a Rams fan,” Macdonald said. “For eight months, he fought for his life and he tried to rehabilitate but he had so many injuries that eventually, he succumbed to his injuries and passed.”
Aguas' injury delayed his plans, but he recently returned to the academy. In fact, he’ll graduate Friday.
“I’ll take my oath as a deputy sheriff of Los Angeles County,” Aguas said.
Macdonald said the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Academy teaches a lot, but everyone may be able to learn something from Class 464.
“We talk about them often and use them as an example for other recruits. How strong they were as a class, how they came together as one, and how they not only did it for themselves, but they did it for the person to their left and to their right,” he said. “They had to overcome odds that no one else had to deal with when they went to the academy.”
