District Attorney George Gascón Announces Long Beach School Safety Officer Charged with Murder

By Vanguard AdministratorOctober 28, 20218 comments

By The Vanguard Staff

LOS ANGELES, CA – A Long Beach Unified School safety officer was arrested and charged Wednesday with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed 18-year-old in Long Beach, according to Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón.

Authorities said that on Sept. 27, then Long Beach Unified School District safety officer Eddie Gonzalez was patrolling an area near Millikan High School in Long Beach “when he noticed an altercation between 18-year-old Manuela Rodriguez and a teenage girl.”

Rodriguez entered into the rear passenger seat of a nearby car, and Gonzalez allegedly fired his handgun twice at the vehicle, striking Rodriguez in the head. She died Oct. 5.

Gonzalez, who has been fired, is being charged with one count of murder. Gonzalez, 51, is in Long Beach jail on $2 million bail. He has an arraignment scheduled for Friday in Long Beach Court.

“We must hold accountable the people we have placed in positions of trust to protect us,” District Attorney Gascón said. “That is especially true for the armed personnel we traditionally have relied upon to guard our children on their way to and from and at school.”

The case is under investigation by the Long Beach Police Department.

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8 comments

  1. the armed personnel we traditionally have relied upon to guard our children on their way to and from and at school.

    They have armed personnel in Long Beach to guard children on their way to and from school?

      1. I learned something today.

        Any idea how this started?  Was there an unarmed guard who was overwhelmed by an armed assailant who kidnapped a child?  Or children being victimized?  I realize we live in utopia here in Davis, but I can’t image what good an armed guard would go in seeing children home in any neighborhood – especially because they couldn’t follow every child every step of the way home, and anyone who meant harm could quickly figure that out.

        1. This is really interesting…

          Models of school policing

          Long Beach Unified’s method of school policing — employing non-sworn officers who carry guns, batons and pepper spray but do not have arrest powers — appears to be an anomaly in Southern California.

          Elsewhere, some large school districts have their own police departments consisting of sworn officers who carry weapons and have arrest powers. Others rely on contracts with police and sheriff’s departments to place full-fledged, armed officers — so-called school resource officers, or SROs — at their high schools.

          Long Beach Unified, in fact, employed three SROs, staffed by Long Beach police, until Superintendent Jill Baker met with Black Lives Matter leaders in July 2020 to discuss school safety issues and the role of police officers on campuses, and decided to phase out the school resource officers.

          https://www.presstelegram.com/2021/10/24/despite-outcries-armed-officers-maintain-presence-at-southern-california-schools/

        2. “employing non-sworn officers who carry guns, batons and pepper spray but do not have arrest powers” ?  Wow, that sounds downright looney.  What are they thinking?

          I do know of armed cops in schools and the controversy there — but didn’t know armed cops walked kids to/from school.

  2. That is especially true for the armed personnel we traditionally have relied upon to guard our children on their way to and from and at school.”

    Overall, it sounds like the community in question is a “terrific place” in which to raise a kid.

      1. Must have been around the same time as year (as now), as I understand that they have spectacular fall plumage.

        Though it seems to me that an organization in Davis had an issue with that as well, but won’t go into that. Or maybe it was more closely related to a particular country that they didn’t care for, rather than the people themselves.

        But something tells me that Long Beach may have problems beyond that particular issue.

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