The former Long Beach school officer who shot and killed an 18-year-old mother as she was a passenger in a fleeing car in 2021 pleaded no contest to a charge of voluntary manslaughter on Tuesday.
Eddie F. Gonzalez, 54, had faced a murder charge, though a jury was unable to reach a verdict earlier this year, as reported by the Press-Enterprise.
Gonzalez, who shot at a fleeing vehicle outside Millikan High School, fatally striking Manuela “Mona” Rodriguez, 18, is expected to be sentenced to either three or six years in state prison on Oct. 8, Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson Pamela Johnson told the Press-Enterprise.
Rodriguez, whose son was 5 months old at the time of her death, had been fighting with another teen at the school before Gonzalez broke up the scuffle.
Rodriguez then got into a vehicle with Rafeul Chowdhury, the father of her son, and his brother, Shahriear Chowdhury, and as the vehicle was driving away, Gonzalez shot twice.
Rodriguez was hit in the back of the head, hospitalized and taken off life support eight days later.
The school district agreed to pay Rodriguez’s family $13 million in a settlement.