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.
They have armed personnel in Long Beach to guard children on their way to and from school?
A lot of school districts do. It’s very controversial.
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.
This is really interesting…
https://www.presstelegram.com/2021/10/24/despite-outcries-armed-officers-maintain-presence-at-southern-california-schools/
“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.
Overall, it sounds like the community in question is a “terrific place” in which to raise a kid.
Long Beach was the location of my only direct encounter with a literal Jew hater in full plumage.
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.