Ex-Long Beach school officer Eddie Gonzalez claims self-defense

When the automobile sped previous him in a Lengthy Seashore parking zone, former faculty security officer Eddie Gonzalez was both a devoted public servant in worry he can be run over by a fleeing suspect — or a killer who made a wild and reckless resolution to shoot into the again of a automobile filled with youths who disobeyed him.

These have been the traces prosecutors and a protection legal professional drew Thursday afternoon as opening arguments started within the guard’s homicide trial within the September 2021 killing of 18-year-old Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez, who was shot lifeless close to Millikan Excessive Faculty when Gonzalez fired two bullets right into a car she was driving in.

The taking pictures sparked outrage and protests. Faculty officers shortly moved to fireside Gonzalez, 54, and then-Lengthy Seashore Mayor Robert Garcia referred to as for him to be prosecuted. Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón obliged, submitting homicide prices a month later.

“The one cause he fired his gun, the one cause Mona misplaced her life, was as a result of three folks disobeyed him,” L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kristopher Homosexual stated Thursday, emphasizing that Gonzalez was in “no hazard” when he opened hearth that day.

Gonzalez was responding to a report of a struggle between Rodriguez and a 15-year-old woman on Palo Verde Avenue close to Millikan Excessive Faculty. Rodriguez was touring together with her boyfriend, Rafael Chowdhury, and his teenage brother once they noticed the opposite woman, who’d just lately gotten right into a struggle with certainly one of Rodriguez’s associates.

Chowdhury beforehand informed police that he and Rodriguez have been trying to purchase sneakers for his or her 5-month-old daughter and occurred upon the woman on the day of the brawl. At Gonzalez’s 2022 preliminary listening to, nonetheless, a police officer testified that the group had gone out looking to assault her.

Oscar and Omar Rodriguez maintain a photograph of their slain sister, Mona, and her mom at a information convention in 2023.

(Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Instances)

“This wasn’t a struggle,” protection legal professional Michael Schwartz stated Thursday, portray Rodriguez as a harmful felony suspect whom Gonzalez needed to cease. “This was a deliberate beat-down.”

Gonzalez threatened to pepper-spray each ladies in the event that they didn’t cease preventing. Rodriguez and her group went again to their automobile, however not earlier than she made a menace towards the 15-year-old’s household, in accordance with preliminary listening to testimony. Gonzalez adopted and ordered her to cease.

Because the automobile drove off, Gonzalez shouted and opened hearth. Rodriguez, who was within the car’s passenger seat, was struck within the head, police stated. Chowdhury and his brother weren’t hit. Gonzalez beforehand informed Lengthy Seashore police investigators he was aiming on the driver however missed and struck Rodriguez.

Rodriguez suffered extreme mind injury and was taken off life help every week later. Final yr, the Lengthy Seashore Unified Faculty District settled a wrongful demise go well with filed by her household for $13 million.

Gonzalez has claimed he acted in self-defense as a result of the automobile might have struck him. However Homosexual argued Thursday that “the defendant responded to youthful disobedience with lethal power.”

As his first witness took the stand late Thursday, Homosexual displayed cellphone video that captured the taking pictures. A girl’s screams may very well be heard because the video displayed Gonzalez letting off his two-shot burst. A number of of Rodriguez’s family may very well be seen turning away within the gallery, and one lady teared up.

Schwartz informed jurors that though Rodriguez’s demise might have been a tragedy, it was “not a criminal offense.”

The veteran protection legal professional — who has made a profession of defending cops from prosecution in extreme power circumstances — famous the automobile’s tires have been turned towards his consumer.

“He was proper by that automobile because it peeled into his path,” Schwartz stated.

Many massive police departments, together with the LAPD, now not enable officers to shoot at shifting autos except the occupants pose a menace past the car itself.

Whereas Homosexual described the struggle between the women as a schoolyard dust-up, Schwartz painted it as a deliberate assault. When Gonzalez opened hearth, his legal professional stated, he was making an attempt to cease harmful felony suspects who had participated in a premeditated assault.

Schwartz stated he plans to name three witnesses who will testify that Gonzalez was within the path of the car when he shot. Homosexual’s first witness, a highschool pupil who filmed the taking pictures, stated Gonzalez fired his second shot whereas he was behind the automobile.

The trial is predicted to final roughly one week.

In a sequence of letters despatched to the courtroom asking for a discount of Gonzalez’s bail at an earlier part of the trial, his family described him as a devoted, hardworking household man who labored as a cable repairman for many years earlier than pursuing his dream to be a regulation enforcement officer.

“On Sept. 27, 2021 — my Dad went to work, as he has carried out for many years, to offer for his household,” wrote his daughter, Jasmine. “He’s not a malicious or vengeful individual and I hope that by means of this trial you and a jury of his friends can see that’s the apparent case.”

Gonzalez was a reserve Orange County sheriff’s deputy from 2015 to 2018, in accordance with the letters, and family claimed he was as soon as named “reserve deputy of the yr.” A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Division didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Gonzalez’s regulation enforcement profession had taken a downward flip within the years earlier than the taking pictures as he bounced between jobs. He labored for the Los Alamitos Police Division from January to April 2019, in accordance with metropolis officers who declined to offer particulars about his departure.

A number of months later, he joined the Sierra Madre Police Division in September 2019, however once more left after lower than a yr on the job, in accordance with a police spokeswoman, who stated the town “selected to separate from Officer Gonzalez” however wouldn’t elaborate.

Police officer disciplinary data are largely shielded from public view beneath California regulation, except the officer has used lethal power or been accused of sexual misconduct or dishonesty on obligation.