Former Long Beach school safety officer sentenced to 3 years for woman's shooting death

A 54-year-old former Long Beach Unified School District safety officer was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for the Sept. 2021 shooting death of an 18-year-old woman that occurred about a block from a high school. 

Eddie Gonzalez faced either three or six years in state prison under a plea agreement, and he received the lower end of the sentencing range of three years, which he has already served through a combination of jail time and electronic monitoring.

After a jury deadlocked in his murder trial, Gonzalez entered his no-contest plea to the less serious charge of voluntary manslaughter on Aug. 20.

The shooting happened on Sept. 27, 2021 about a block of Millikan High School when Gonzalez shot and killed 18-year-old Manuela "Mona" Rodriguez." She was struck by gunfire while sitting in the front passenger seat of an Infiniti that was being driven by her boyfriend in a parking lot near the school.

She died days after being taken off life support and Gonzalez was fired by the district about a week after the shooting, then arrested about a month later.

Rodriguez had been in a confrontation with a 15-year-old girl outside the high school campus, and Gonzales intervened. As she got in the car's passenger seat, as it began to drive 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, showing Rodriguez firing two shots into a gray car as it sped away, its tires screeching. One of the bullets hit Rodriguez in the head, killing her. She was the mother of an infant son, who was inside the car with her boyfriend and his teenage brother.

During Gonzalez's trial, a prosecutor told jurors that the defendant tried to "play police officer" and made a series of bad decisions that led to the fatal shooting.

The defendant's attorney argued that his client acted in self-defense out of fear he was going to be run over by the car in which the woman was a passenger.

In his closing argument, Deputy 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 all that Gonzalez had to do that day was to get the vehicle's license plate number and let "real police officers handle the situation," but said he instead "escalated the situation with a series of bad decisions" and "unnecessarily fired two shots at the back of that fleeing vehicle."

Defense attorney Michael Schwartz urged jurors to acquit Gonzalez, telling the panel that "true justice" demanded such a verdict. Gonzalez's lawyer said his client shot to "stop the threat of deadly force," noting that two witnesses called by the defense testified that they believed Gonzalez was in danger of being struck by the vehicle if he had not moved out of the way. He said it doesn't mean his client is guilty of anything if the "threat changed positions" before Gonzalez fired the shots.

 "A tragedy took place, not a crime," Schwartz told jurors.