When the automotive sped previous him in a Lengthy Seaside parking zone, former college security officer Eddie Gonzalez was both a devoted public servant in concern he could 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 filled with youths who disobeyed him.
These have been the strains prosecutors and a protection lawyer drew Thursday afternoon as opening arguments started within the guard’s homicide trial in 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 shortly moved to fireplace Gonzalez, 54, and then-Lengthy Seaside Mayor Robert Garcia referred to 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 folks disobeyed him,” L.A. County Deputy Dist. Atty. Kristopher Homosexual mentioned Thursday, emphasizing that Gonzalez was in “no hazard” when he opened hearth that day.
Gonzalez was responding to a report of a battle between Rodriguez and a 15-year-old woman on Palo Verde Avenue close to Millikan Excessive College. Rodriguez was touring along 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 battle with considered one of Rodriguez’s associates.
Chowdhury beforehand informed police that he and Rodriguez have been trying to purchase sneakers 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, nevertheless, a police officer testified that the group had gone out looking 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 Instances)
“This wasn’t a battle,” protection lawyer Michael Schwartz mentioned 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 women in the event that they didn’t cease combating. Rodriguez and her group went again to their automotive, however not earlier than she made a risk towards the 15-year-old’s household, in keeping 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 mentioned. Chowdhury and his brother weren’t hit. Gonzalez beforehand informed Lengthy Seaside police investigators he was aiming on the driver however missed and struck Rodriguez.
Rodriguez suffered extreme mind injury and was taken off life help every week later. Final yr, the Lengthy Seaside 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 power.”
As his first witness took the stand late Thursday, Homosexual displayed cellphone video that captured the taking pictures. A lady’s screams could possibly be heard because the video displayed Gonzalez letting off his two-shot burst. A number of of Rodriguez’s kinfolk could possibly be seen turning away within the gallery, and one lady 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 power circumstances — famous the automotive’s tires have been turned towards his shopper.
“He was proper by that automotive because it peeled into his path,” Schwartz mentioned.
Many giant police departments, together with the LAPD, now not enable officers to shoot at transferring automobiles until the occupants pose a risk past the automobile itself.
Whereas Homosexual described the battle between the women as a schoolyard dust-up, Schwartz painted it as a deliberate assault. When Gonzalez opened hearth, his lawyer mentioned, he was making an attempt to cease harmful felony suspects who had participated in a premeditated assault.
Schwartz mentioned 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, mentioned Gonzalez fired his second shot whereas he was behind the automotive.
The trial is predicted to final roughly one week.
In a sequence 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 legislation enforcement officer.
“On Sept. 27, 2021 — my Dad went to work, as he has achieved for many years, to offer for his household,” wrote his daughter, Jasmine. “He’s not a malicious or vengeful individual and I hope that via 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 keeping with the letters, and kinfolk claimed he was as soon as named “reserve deputy of the yr.” A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Division didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Gonzalez’s legislation 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 keeping with metropolis officers who declined to offer particulars about his departure.
A couple of months later, he joined the Sierra Madre Police Division in September 2019, however once more left after lower than a yr on the job, in keeping with a police spokeswoman, who mentioned town “selected to separate from Officer Gonzalez” however wouldn’t elaborate.
Police officer disciplinary data are largely shielded from public view below California legislation, until the officer has used lethal power or been accused of sexual misconduct or dishonesty on responsibility.
