- Mona Rodriguez was involved in a fight when the officer intervened, police said.
- She then got into a car, and video appeared to show the officer
shooting at the vehicle. - Rodriguez was put on life support and has been declared brain-dead, her family attorney said.
An 18-year-old woman in California was left brain-dead and put on life support after being shot by a school-safety officer, her family said.
Manuela Rodriguez, also known as Mona, and a 15-year-old girl were fighting near Millikan High School in Long Beach on Monday when the school's safety officer arrived and tried to stop them, the Long Beach Police Department said, according to The Guardian.
Rodriguez then got into a vehicle, which drove off, The Guardian and The Washington Post reported. It is unclear whether she was driving.
The officer, who has not been named, then appeared to shoot at the vehicle, according to video footage shared by the Long Beach Post.
Watch the footage here. Readers may find it disturbing.
Michael Carrillo, the attorney for the Rodriguez family, said the officer fired twice at the car, striking Rodriguez in the back of the head.
Carrillo said that the teenager was declared brain-dead on Thursday and that doctors were moving to take her off life support, The Guardian reported.
Rodriguez has a 5-month-old son, The Washington Post reported.
"The officer took it upon himself to whip out his gun and start shooting at a moving vehicle. There's absolutely no justification for what he did," Carrillo said, according to The Post. He also said the episode also showed school-safety officers should not be armed.
The officer has not been arrested, but police said an investigation was underway, The Post reported.
The Post reported that Jill Baker, the superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District, did not respond to its request for comment.
But in a Tuesday statement, she said the shooting had left her with a "heavy heart" and defended how school-safety officers were trained.