California school district to pay $13 million to family of teen shot to death by school resource officer
Attorneys for a woman whose 18-year-old daughter was shot to death by a Long Beach Unified School District security officer two years ago say they are settling their lawsuit against the district.
The attorneys for Manuela Sahagun — the mother of Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez, who was shot in the back of the head as she sat in the passenger seat of her boyfriend’s car in September 2021 — and the estate of Rodriguez’s infant son, Isael Rodriguez Chowdhury, said Monday in an emailed announcement that the school district will agree to pay the family $13 million to settle the case.
Rodriguez was shot in a parking lot about a block from Millikan High School. Long Beach police said the school resource officer who shot her, Eddie Francisco Gonzalez, had witnessed Rodriguez get into a fight with a 15-year-old girl that spilled out on to Palo Verde Road near Spring Street.
After the fight, Rodriguez got into a car being driven by her boyfriend and her son’s father, Rafeul Chowdhury, in the parking lot nearby. That’s when Gonzalez approached the passenger side window.
Bystander video showed what happened next — Chowdhury’s car lurched forward and started to drive away. Gonzalez then pulled out a handgun and fired two quick shots at the back of the car, with one of the bullets piercing the back window and the passenger side head rest, hitting Rodriguez.
Rodriguez was critically injured. She was taken a hospital, but her family took her off life-support about a week later.
The school district later fired Gonzalez. Just one month after the shooting, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office charged him with murder.
Gonzalez pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, saying he fired in self-defense. He posted $2 million bail last year and still is awaiting trial. The D.A.’s office said a pretrial conference for the case was scheduled for June 7.
Sahagun and family of Rodriguez’s son sued in December 2021. Sahagun alleged wrongful death, excessive force, negligence and civil rights violations in the killing of her daughter.
In the lawsuit, Sahagun said she had “lost the love, companionship, comfort and affection she obtained from her daughter.”
She said the district should have been aware of Gonzalez’s lack of experience when they hired him: In previous, brief stints with the Sierra Madre and Los Alamitos police departments, he was let go following probationary periods both times. When the shooting occurred, Gonzalez had worked for Long Beach Unified for just nine months.
What next steps are required to approved the settlement were not clear Monday. Luis Carrillo, one of the attorneys for Sahagun, declined to comment.
Chris Eftychiou, a spokesman for the school district, said the school board had not yet “seen or ratified an agreement.” He said the “district and its insurance carriers” were in negotiations over the settlement. He declined to discuss the details of the case.
“We again share our sincerest condolences with everyone who was impacted by this terrible event,” he said in an email.
The school board discussed the lawsuit in the closed sessions of its public meetings on Feb. 15 and March 1, according to the meeting agendas. But there was no record of any decisions being made in those sessions.
Other details of the settlement agreement were not available Monday. Court records did not show whether the agreement had been filed in L.A. County Superior Court, or whether a judge had signed off on the settlement.
Attorneys for Sahagun and Rodriguez Chowdhury said the family would speak in Long Beach on Tuesday, April 4.