Former school safety officer charged with murder
Homicide prices had been filed in opposition to a former faculty security officer who shot an 18-year-old mother in Southern California final month, the Los Angeles District Legal professional’s workplace introduced Wednesday.
The officer, Eddie F. Gonzalez, was fired from his place in the future after capturing Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez on Sept. 27.
A bullet fired by Gonzalez hit Rodriguez “within the higher physique” as she and two associates drove away from an off-campus car parking zone close to Millikan Excessive College, in response to the Lengthy Seashore Police Division. Gonzalez, who was driving close by, stopped after witnessing a battle between Rodriguez and a 15-year-old woman, in response to police.
Rodriguez, the mom of a 5-month-old boy, was taken off life assist and died Oct. 5.
Oscar Rodriguez, the brother of Mona, spoke after the fees had been introduced.
“My sister was superb. She was an individual to assist me out in my instances of bother as a younger youngster,” he stated. “She was there for me, and now that she’s gone I don’t know find out how to heal. The sort of legal motion shouldn’t be allowed in our state, in our nation.”
Los Angeles County District Legal professional George Gascón introduced the cost of 1 rely of homicide throughout a information convention in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday afternoon.
“We should maintain accountable the folks we’ve got positioned in positions of belief to guard us,” Gascón stated. “That’s very true for the armed personnel we historically have relied upon to protect our youngsters on their strategy to and from and at college.”
Calls to finish having armed officers in faculties grew throughout the social activism surge that adopted the 2020 police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, however criticism of faculty police spending and law-enforcement practices on campuses started earlier. A 2019 American Civil Liberties Union examine advocated a shift in spending from campus policing to psychological well being professionals.
The “prioritization of faculty police is troubling, not just for the shortage of psychological well being assist for our nation’s college students, but in addition provided that analysis signifies faculty police don’t cut back mass shootings and as a substitute contribute to much less inclusive faculty climates,” the report stated.
Luis Carillo, a lawyer representing the Rodriguez household, commented on the fees following the announcement.
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“That is the start of justice for Mona, her mom and the whole Rodriguez household,” he wrote in an announcement. “But it surely took too lengthy to arrest the person who unjustly killed Mona Rodriguez.”
In dismissing Gonzalez from his job after Rodriguez’s dying, the district discovered that he violated coverage forbidding an officer from firing at a fleeing particular person, a shifting car or by way of a car window until such motion is warranted as “a last technique of protection.”
Gonzalez had handed all his background checks and his required coaching had been confirmed earlier than he was employed in January, in response to Superintendent Jill A. Baker.
He was a security officer employed by a faculty district, which is totally different from faculty useful resource officers, who’re federally outlined as being absolutely sworn, licensed legislation enforcement officers deployed by a legislation enforcement company to carry out community-based policing on a faculty campus.
Gonzalez is anticipated to be arraigned Friday, the district legal professional’s workplace stated.
Contributing: Invoice Keveney, USA TODAY; The Related Press