Ex-LBUSD safety officer pleads no contest in slaying of 18-year-old
Jurors previously deadlocked in a trial this year against Eddie Gonzalez, who shot and killed Mona Rodriguez near Millikan High School in 2021.
A former Long Beach Unified School District safety officer pleaded no contest today to one count of voluntary manslaughter in the killing of 18-year-old Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez nearly three years ago.
Police say Rodriguez had been in a fight with a 15-year-old girl in the area of Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue on Sept. 27, 2021.
Eddie Gonzalez, who had been driving nearby in his school safety officer car, saw the fight and pulled over, according to authorities.
Video captured that day showed Gonzalez helping break up the fight before approaching a gray car at a parking lot.
He appeared to try to open its passenger door before the driver peeled off, the video showed. Gonzalez reacted by firing his gun at the car at least twice, according to the video.
One of the bullets struck Rodriguez in the head, according to authorities. She remained on life support for a few days before she died, authorities said.
Gonzalez was fired from his safety officer job in the aftermath of the shooting. Questions were also raised as to why he had been hired in the first place, given his limited law enforcement background.
But district officials at the time said they had found nothing in his background that disqualified him from the position.
He was arrested in connection to Rodriguez’s death the following month and charged with murder.
Jurors in April were tasked with trying to figure out whether Gonzalez’s actions were in self-defense—as he claimed he feared he’d be run over by the car despite being at its side.
But prosecutors argued that he overstepped and his life was in no real danger when he fired the shots from behind the car.
They added that all he had to do was take down the license plate of the car Rodriguez was in and let police handle the situation, but instead he chose to escalate it by firing his gun.
Ultimately, jurors couldn’t come to unanimous decision and deadlocked 7-5, with the majority choosing to convict him of second-degree murder while the rest leaned toward voluntary manslaughter.
Gonzalez’s case was going to be retried when he instead plead no contest to one count of voluntary manslaughter, court records show.
He will be sentenced on Oct. 8 and faces three to six years in prison under the plea agreement, the Long Beach Press Telegram reported.
Since her death, Rodriguez's family has won a lawsuit against the LBUSD in which they received $13 million.
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