Murder or self-defense? Ex-school officer on trial for shooting girl in moving car

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

These had been the traces prosecutors and a protection lawyer 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 useless close to Millikan Excessive College when Gonzalez fired two bullets right into a automobile she was driving in.

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

“The one purpose he fired his gun, the one purpose Mona misplaced her life, was as a result of three individuals 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 College. Rodriguez was touring together with her boyfriend, Rafael Chowdhury, and his teenage brother once they noticed the opposite woman, who’d not too long ago gotten right into a struggle with considered one of Rodriguez’s pals.

Chowdhury beforehand informed police that he and Rodriguez had been trying to purchase footwear 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 out 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 Occasions)

“This wasn’t a struggle,” protection lawyer 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 automotive, 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 automotive drove off, Gonzalez shouted and opened hearth. Rodriguez, who was within the automobile’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 per week later. Final 12 months, the Lengthy Seashore Unified College District settled a wrongful demise swimsuit filed by her household for $13 million.

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

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

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

The veteran protection lawyer — who has made a profession of defending law enforcement officials from prosecution in extreme drive circumstances — famous the automotive’s tires had been turned towards his shopper.

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

Many giant police departments, together with the LAPD, now not permit officers to shoot at shifting automobiles except the occupants pose a menace past the automobile itself.

Whereas Homosexual described the struggle between the ladies as a schoolyard dust-up, Schwartz painted it as a deliberate assault. When Gonzalez opened hearth, his lawyer stated, he was attempting 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 automobile 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 automotive.

The trial is predicted to final roughly one week.

In a collection of letters despatched to the court docket asking for a discount of Gonzalez’s bail at an earlier part of the trial, his kinfolk 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 accomplished for many years, to supply for his household,” wrote his daughter, Jasmine. “He’s not a malicious or vengeful particular person and I hope that by way 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 kinfolk claimed he was as soon as named “reserve deputy of the 12 months.” 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 supply 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 12 months 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 underneath California regulation, except the officer has used lethal drive or been accused of sexual misconduct or dishonesty on obligation.