A mom who was shot by a school safety officer near a Californian school is brain dead and not expected to survive, according to loved ones.
Mona Rodriguez, a mom of a 5-month-old baby, was involved in a fight with a 15-year-old girl on Monday afternoon near Millikan High School in Long Beach.
The 18-year-old was then shot in the back of the head as she left in a car with a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy, whose possible involvement in the fight authorities are investigating, as per KTLA5 News.
She was transported in a critical condition to a local trauma center where she was put on life support. But now her family have been told that she will be taken off life support in less than 24 hours, according to the family’s attorneys.
The school safety officer has been placed on paid administrative leave pending the results of an investigation.
The father of Mona Rodriguez’s 5-month-old son Rafeul Chowdhury said the officer had warned his girlfriend that he would pepper spray them if they didn’t stop fighting but they did stop, and the officer gave them no further warnings before opening fire.
“All we did is just got in the car and left,” he said. “He never told us to stop anytime soon, and the way he shot us, it wasn’t right.
“I want (the safety officer) in jail for what he did to my girlfriend — she did not deserve this,” said Chowdhury who added the teen boy in the car was his brother. “I cannot sleep through the nights; I’m going crazy.”
On Monday he stood alongside civil rights activist Najee Ali to demand justice.
Ali said there was no justification for the shooting.
“There’s no excuse, no justification for this officer shooting in the rear passenger-side window of a car with a woman who’s unarmed. Everyone in the car was unarmed,” he said. “And the fact is, he shot at someone in the passenger seat with no regard for anyone’s life in the car.
“The only way we stop these safety officers from shooting unarmed people and killing them is by having them prosecuted and held accountable for what they’ve done wrong to members of the community,” Ali said, as per the Press-Telegram.
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, Long Beach police spokesman Brandon Fahey said, as per the Press-Telegram.
Long Beach Unified Superintendent Jill Baker said the district’s school safety officers are “highly trained and held accountable to the established standards in their profession.”
A GoFundMe, which has raised just over $6,000 for the funeral and other expenses, described Mona as “smart, beautiful, loving and anyone who knew her knew how big her heart was, how full of life she was and how much she loved her family but most especially her son who was her entire life.”
I hope a thorough investigation is carried out and lessons are learned from this.
My heart goes out to Mona’s loved ones and to her son, who will grow up without his mom. May you rest in peace Mona. Please share.
