Justice sought in officer shooting
The boyfriend of woman gravely injured after school worker fired on car calls for him to face charges
The boyfriend of the 18-year-old woman shot by a school safety officer earlier this week called for him to face charges for the incident that erupted near Millikan High School in Long Beach.
Mona Rodriguez of Long Beach was on life support and brain-dead after being shot in the back of the head Monday afternoon, said her boyfriend, Rafeul Chowdhury.
Chowdhury, who has a 5-monthold son with Rodriguez, spoke to reporters Wednesday morning just outside of Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where his girlfriend was on life support.
“I want (the safety officer) in jail for what he did to my girlfriend — she did not deserve this,” said Chowdhury, 20. “I cannot sleep through the nights; I’m going crazy.”
The family expects to take Rodriguez off life support after relatives say their goodbyes, he said.
Chowdhury said he was the driver of the car that was shot at by the school safety officer in a parking lot at Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue. Rodriguez was in the passenger seat when she was shot and his 16-year-old brother was in the back seat, he said.
Rodriguez got into a fight with a 15-year-old girl around 3:15 p.m. that day, when the school safety officer approached them, according to Chowdhury and police.
The safety officer threatened to use pepper spray on the two fighting unless they stopped, which they did, Chowdhury said. The safety officer did not mention he had a firearm or threatened to use one, he said.
Afterward, he along with Rodriguez and his brother got into the car to drive away, Chowdhury said.
“We got in the car, we were already leaving,” the brother, Shahriear Chowdhury, said. “(The school safety officer is) at the back of the car getting the plates — and reading it to his walkietalkie — when he decides to come to the side of the car where the fender is and screams, ‘Hey!’ when we’re leaving.”
Video, made available on social media, shows the officer slowly approach the car. When he is very close to the passenger’s side, the sedan starts to speed off.
“And he decides to fire two times,” Shahriear Chowdhury said. “One of the bullets got stuck in the door where I could’ve got shot; the other bullet went through the window; where it got Mona.”
Civil rights activist Najee Ali, who was acting as spokesman for the Rodriguez family, said no one in the vehicle was armed. Investigators had not yet determined if anyone was armed or not, Long Beach police spokesman Brandon Fahey said.
Long Beach police were leading the investigation into the shooting; the safety officer is not sworn police and is not an employee of the Police Department. The safety officer was cooperating with the investigation, Fahey said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office also was conducting an investigation. Ali called upon District Attorney George Gascón to press charges against the safety officer.
The safety officer is a Long Beach Unified School District employee. He was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation into the shooting, school district spokesman Chris Eftychiou said.
None of the people inside of the car was a Millikan student, Rafeul Chowdhury said. He said he doesn’t understand why the safety officer fired his weapon.
“The way he shot at us, it wasn’t right,” he said through tears. “He could’ve shot my tires. But why straight through the window?”
Rafeul Chowdhury said he has been with Rodriguez for about two years and she is the love of his life. He said he will now have to be the mother and the father to his son. “It was unreal; it’s just so hard to say goodbye,” he said. “It’s too early, she’s barely 18, barely had a 5-month-old son.”