Story at a glance
- An 18-year-old woman is on life support after being shot in the head by a school safety officer.
- Mona Rodriguez had gotten into an altercation with a 15-year-old girl just outside of campus when the officer came to intervene.
- The officer shot into a moving vehicle Rodriguez was in as it attempted to drive away.
An 18-year-old woman is on life support and has been declared brain dead after she was shot by a school safety officer outside of a high school in Long Beach, California.
Authorities told the Los Angeles Times the woman, identified as Mona Rodriguez, had gotten into an altercation with a 15-year-old girl just outside of campus when a Long Beach Unified School District public safety officer came over to intervene and Rodriguez left to get into a car.
Video taken by a bystander that has gone viral on social media shows Rodriguez in a grey car as the officer approaches and it begins to take off. The unidentified officer is then seen firing twice into the car as it attempts to drive away.
Rodriguez, who has a 5-month-old son, was shot in the head. Her family said she is not expected to survive.
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“I just want justice for my girl, my baby mama, my love of my life that I can’t get back ever again,” her boyfriend, Rafeul Chowdhury, told CBS LA. “I don’t know what to do with my 5-month-old son.”
The officer, who remains unidentified, has been placed on paid leave while the Long Beach Police Department and district attorney investigate.
“For this officer to go after the car and to start shooting inside the car was totally against policy, against training, and against common sense,” Luis Carrillo, an attorney representing Rodriguez’s family, told the Guardian.
The Long Beach Police Department will not comment on the active investigation.
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