A woman involved in an altercation was shot by a Long Beach Unified School District safety officer as she attempted to flee yesterday and was hospitalized in critical condition.
Long Beach Police Department officers responded at 3:12 p.m. to the area of Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue near Millikan High School regarding a shooting and when they arrived they found a woman with at least one gunshot wound to the upper torso after she was shot by the school safety officer, said Long Beach Police spokesman Brandon Fahey.
An initial investigation revealed the school safety officer responded to an altercation between multiple subjects and when they attempted to leave in a vehicle the school safety officer approached the vehicle and the shooting occurred, Fahey said.
In video of the incident, the school safety officer can be seen touching the side of the silver Sedan before it begins to drive off. The safety officer then fires multiple shots at the vehicle as it attempts to leave.
The wounded woman was taken to a hospital where she was said to be in critical condition.
“This public safety officer, who’s not even a real police officer, he’s one step up above a security guard, must be brought to justice,” activist Najee Ali said in a press conference outside LBUSD headquarters this morning calling for criminal charges against the officer.
According to a 2019 recruitment flyer from LBUSD, the requirements to become a school safety officer include police academy enrollment or graduation within three years, the possession of a California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) basic certificate, current POST requalification and a valid California’s drivers license.
“Nowhere in the training of these public safety officers does it say you can shoot someone as they’re driving away through the back window of their car,” Ali said. “We know that the only way you can shoot someone if you are law enforcement, public safety officer, is if they are in fear of their lives.”
California’s 2020 POST standards on the use of force state that, “Officers should only discharge a firearm at or from a moving vehicle to counter an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or another individual, by an occupant in the vehicle.”
Millikan High School confirmed in a statement that no students were injured in the shooting.
Fahey said the investigation is ongoing and the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s office will also be conducting an independent investigation of the shooting.
In a statement, LBUSD encouraged students and families to contact LBPD with any information about the incident.
Update: Sept. 28, 1 p.m.: This story was updated to include quotes from Najee Ali and information about the qualifications required to become a school safety officer at LBUSD.
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