Former Long Beach school security guard convicted in shooting death of woman

A 54-year-old former Long Beach Unified School District security guard is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday in the September 2021 shooting death of an 18-year-old woman near a high school.

According to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office, Eddie Gonzalez faces either three or six years in state prison under a plea agreement.

After a jury deadlocked in his murder trialGonzalez entered his no contest plea on Aug. 20 to the less serious charge of involuntary manslaughter.

The shooting happened on September 27, 2021 across a block of Millikan High School when Gonzalez shot and killed 18-year-old Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez.” She was struck by gunfire as she sat in the passenger seat of an Infiniti that her boyfriend was driving in a parking lot near the School.

She died Days after life support was switched off and Gonzalez was fired from the county about a week after the shooting and arrested about a month later.

Rodriguez had gotten into a confrontation with a 15-year-old girl outside the high school campus, and Gonzales intervened. As she got into the passenger seat and the car drove off, Gonzales testified that he thought the car was going to hit him, so he shot at the vehicle.

The incident was captured on cell phone video, in which Rodriguez can be seen firing two shots at a gray car as it speeds away with squealing tires. One of the bullets hit Rodriguez in the head, killing her. She was the mother of a young son who was in the car with her boyfriend and his teenage brother.

During Gonzalez’s trial, a prosecutor told jurors that the defendant tried to “play cop” and made a series of poor decisions that led to the fatal shooting.

The defendant’s lawyer argued that his client acted in self-defense out of fear that he would be hit by the car in which the woman was a passenger.

In his closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Lee Orquiola said Gonzalez “responded to youthful disobedience with deadly force” and “unjustifiably” fired two shots at the vehicle.

The prosecutor told jurors that all Gonzalez had to do that day was get the vehicle’s license plate and let “real police officers handle the situation,” but said he instead “escalated the situation through a series of poor decisions” and “fired him unnecessarily.” . two shots were fired at the rear of the fleeing vehicle.

Defense attorney Michael Schwartz urged the jury to acquit Gonzalez, telling the panel that “true justice” demands such a verdict. Gonzalez’s attorney said his client fired to “prevent the threat of deadly force” and pointed out that two witnesses called by the defense said they believed Gonzalez was in danger of being hit by the vehicle if he hadn’t gotten out of the way. He said it didn’t mean his client was guilty of anything if the “threat changed positions” before Gonzalez fired the shots.

“A tragedy occurred, not a crime,” Schwartz told jurors.