When the car passed him in a Long Beach parking lot, former school security guard Eddie Gonzalez was either a dedicated public servant fearing being run over by a fleeing suspect or a killer who took the wild and reckless decision to shoot him. the back of a car full of young people who disobeyed him.
Those are the lines prosecutors and a defense attorney drew Thursday afternoon as closing arguments began in the guard’s murder trial in the September 2021 slaying of Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez, 18, who was shot to death near Millikan High School when Gonzalez fired two shots. bullets into a vehicle she was in.
The shooting sparked outrage and protests. School officials quickly fired Gonzalez, 54, and then Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia called for him to be prosecuted. District of Los Angeles County. Atty. George Gascón agreed, filing murder charges a month later.
“The only reason he fired his gun, the only reason Mona lost her life, was because three people disobeyed him,” said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kristopher Gay said Thursday, emphasizing that Gonzalez was in “no danger” when he opened fire that day.
Gonzalez was responding to a report of a fight between Rodriguez and a 15-year-old girl on Palo Verde Avenue near Millikan High School. Rodriguez was traveling with her boyfriend, Rafael Chowdhury, and his teenage brother when they spotted the other girl, who had recently gotten into a fight with one of Rodriguez’s friends.
Chowdhury previously told police that he and Rodriguez were looking to buy shoes for their 5-month-old daughter and came across the girl the day of the fight. However, during Gonzalez’s 2022 preliminary hearing, a police officer testified that the group had left looking to assault him.
Oscar and Omar Rodriguez hold a photo of their murdered sister, Mona, and her mother during a press conference in 2023.
(Jay L. Clendenin/Los Angeles Times)
“It wasn’t a fight,” defense attorney Michael Schwartz said Thursday, describing Rodriguez as a dangerous crime suspect who Gonzalez had to arrest. “It was a planned attack.”
Gonzalez threatened to pepper spray both girls if they didn’t stop fighting. Rodriguez and her group returned to their car, but not before she made threats against the 15-year-old girl’s family, according to testimony at the preliminary hearing. Gonzalez followed him and ordered him to stop.
As the car drove off, Gonzalez screamed and opened fire. Rodriguez, who was in the passenger seat of the vehicle, was struck in the head, police said. Chowdhury and his brother were not affected. Gonzalez previously told Long Beach police investigators that he was aiming for the driver, but missed and hit Rodriguez.
Rodriguez suffered severe brain damage and was taken off life support a week later. Last year, the Long Beach Unified School District settled a wrongful death lawsuit filed by his family for $13 million.
Gonzalez claimed he acted in self-defense because the car could have hit him. But Gay argued Thursday that “the defendant responded to the youth’s disobedience with deadly force.”
As his first witness took the stand Thursday evening, Gay showed cellphone video of the shooting. A woman’s screams could be heard as the video showed Gonzalez launching his two-shot burst. Several of Rodriguez’s relatives could be seen turning away in the gallery, and one woman was in tears.
Schwartz told jurors that while Rodriguez’s death may have been a tragedy, it was “not a crime.”
The veteran defense attorney — who made a career defending police officers from prosecution in excessive force cases — noted that the car’s tires were turned toward his client.
“He was right next to that car when it came into his path,” Schwartz said.
Many large police departments, including the LAPD, no longer allow officers to shoot at moving vehicles unless the occupants pose a threat beyond the vehicle itself.
While Gay described the fight between the girls as a dust-up in a schoolyard, Schwartz described it as a planned attack. When Gonzalez opened fire, his attorney said, he was trying to arrest dangerous crime suspects who had participated in a premeditated assault.
Schwartz said he plans to call three witnesses who will testify that Gonzalez was in the path of the vehicle when it fired. Gay’s first witness, a high school student who filmed the shooting, said Gonzalez fired his second shot while behind the car.
The trial is expected to last about a week.
In a series of letters sent to the court requesting a reduction in Gonzalez’s bail at an earlier stage of the trial, his relatives described him as a dedicated, hard-working family man who worked as a cable repairman for decades before suing his dream of becoming a law enforcement officer.
“On September 27, 2021, my father went to work, as he has for decades, to provide for his family,” wrote his daughter, Jasmine. “He is not a malicious or vengeful person and I hope that through this trial you and a jury of his peers can see that this is obvious.”
Gonzalez was an Orange County sheriff’s reserve deputy from 2015 to 2018, according to the letters, and those close to him said he was named “reserve deputy of the year.” A spokeswoman for the sheriff’s department did not respond to a request for comment.
Gonzalez’s career in law enforcement had taken a negative turn in the years leading up to the shooting, as he moved from job to job. He worked for the Los Alamitos Police Department from January to April 2019, according to city officials who declined to provide details about his departure.
A few months later, he joined the Sierra Madre Police Department in September 2019, but left again after less than a year on the job, according to a police spokeswoman, who said the city “chose to part ways with Agent Gonzalez” but would not provide further details. .
Police officers’ disciplinary records are largely hidden from public view under California law unless the officer used deadly force or was accused of sexual misconduct or dishonesty in the exercise of law. its functions.
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