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The erstwhile officer, Eddie Gonzalez, was charged with 1 number of execution aft helium changeable Manuela Rodriguez, 18, adjacent a precocious schoolhouse successful Long Beach, Calif., past month.
Oct. 28, 2021Updated 11:39 a.m. ET
A erstwhile California schoolhouse information serviceman who fatally changeable an unarmed 18-year-old miss past period has been charged with murder, prosecutors said.
The erstwhile officer, Eddie F. Gonzalez, 51, was arrested connected Wednesday and charged with 1 number of execution successful the Sept. 27 shooting of Manuela Rodriguez, 18, adjacent Millikan High School successful Long Beach, the Los Angeles County territory attorney, George Gascón, said successful a statement connected Wednesday.
Mr. Gonzalez, who was a schoolhouse information serviceman with the Long Beach Unified School District, was booked into the Long Beach jailhouse connected Wednesday, wherever helium was being held connected $2 cardinal bail, according to jailhouse records. It was not instantly wide if helium had a lawyer.
“We indispensable clasp accountable the radical we person placed successful positions of spot to support us,” Mr. Gascón said successful the statement. “That is particularly existent for the equipped unit we traditionally person relied upon to defender our children connected their mode to and from and astatine school.”
Just aft 3 p.m. connected Sept. 27, Mr. Gonzalez was patrolling an country adjacent the precocious schoolhouse erstwhile helium noticed Ms. Rodriguez and a 15-year-old miss warring successful the street, the constabulary said. The 15-year-old, who was not identified, was a pupil astatine Millikan High School.
A lawyer for the Rodriguez family, Michael Carrillo, said Ms. Rodriguez, who was known arsenic Mona, was not a pupil astatine the schoolhouse and had a 6-month-old son.
Investigators said a 20-year-old antheral and a 16-year-old lad were besides progressive successful the incident. When the man, the lad and Ms. Rodriguez tried to thrust away, Mr. Gonzalez approached the conveyance to forestall them from fleeing, the constabulary said.
Mr. Carillo said the man, Rafeul Chowdhury, was Ms. Rodriguez’s fellow and the begetter of her son, and the lad was Mr. Chowdhury’s brother.
Video showed the car astir hitting Mr. Gonzalez, who fired astatine slightest 2 shots arsenic it drove off, striking Ms. Rodriguez, who was a passenger, according to the police. Mr. Carrillo said she was changeable successful the head.
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She was taken to a infirmary successful captious information and died connected Oct. 6 from her injuries, according to the constabulary department, which is inactive investigating the case.
At the clip of the shooting, Mr. Gonzalez worked for the Long Beach Unified School District and was not employed oregon affiliated with the Long Beach Police Department oregon the City of Long Beach, the constabulary said.
The schoolhouse territory serves astir 70,000 students, from preschool to precocious school, successful 85 nationalist schools. On Oct. 6, the schoolhouse district’s committee voted unanimously to occurrence Mr. Gonzalez, the schoolhouse territory said.
At the time, the district’s schools superintendent, Jill Baker, said, “After our interior review, we intelligibly saw areas wherever the worker violated territory argumentation and did not conscionable our standards and expectations.”
She added that the schoolhouse district’s use-of-force argumentation says “officers shall not occurrence astatine a fleeing person, shall not occurrence astatine a moving conveyance and shall not occurrence done a conveyance model unless circumstances intelligibly warrant the usage of a firearm arsenic a last means of defense.”
In a connection connected Wednesday, the schoolhouse territory said, “We admit the interaction of this calamity and we again widen our sincerest condolences to everyone who has been impacted, particularly the family, friends and loved ones of the shooting victim, Manuela Rodriguez.”
Mr. Carrillo said successful an interrogation connected Thursday that the complaint against Mr. Gonzalez was “just a archetypal measurement connected the roadworthy to justice.”
He added: “This is not going to bring Mona back. The household understands that. At slightest it holds the serviceman accountable for his actions.”
At a quality league connected Wednesday, Ms. Rodriguez’s member Oscar Rodriguez said,“How would you consciousness if immoderate 1 of your loved ones is successful the infirmary particularly knowing that 1 of the radical that are expected to beryllium taking attraction of our children and radical is the 1 that did the harm.”
Mr. Gonzalez is expected to beryllium arraigned connected Friday successful Los Angeles County Superior Court, Long Beach Branch.
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