A school safety officer who shot a woman after she got into a fight with a teenage girl Monday near Millikan High School in Long Beach has been placed on paid administrative leave, authorities said Tuesday.
Officers responded to the report of a shooting at about 3:10 p.m. Monday in the area of Spring Street and Palo Verde Avenue, the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.
The shooting involved a Long Beach Unified school safety officer who saw a physical altercation take place between an 18-year-old woman and a 15-year-old girl in the street.
An 18-year-old man and a 16-year-old teenage boy were also involved in the assault, police said, but their level of participation remains under investigation.
“While the motive for the assault remains under investigation, detectives believe the suspect and victim are known to each other, and the 18-year-old female adult suspect initiated the assault,” the Police Department said in a statement. “When the female suspect, male adult, and male juvenile attempted to flee in a 4-door gray sedan, the school safety officer approached the vehicle, and the shooting occurred.”
Cellphone video shows a uniformed man opening fire on a sedan as it sped off from a parking area and nearly clipped him.
The woman who was shot was seated in the front passenger seat of the car.
She was taken to a local hospital where she was listed in critical condition.
She was identified by her family as “Mona” in a GoFundMe page, which also said she is a mother of a 5-month-old boy.
No other injuries were reported.
Officials told KTLA the officer involved in the shooting is on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations.
“Our school safety officers are hired to protect the physical safety of our staff and students on and around campuses. They are highly trained and held accountable to the established standards in their profession. Those standards will be used to assess the incident that occurred yesterday,” Jill Baker, superintendent of the Long Beach Unified School District said in a statement.
Long Beach police officers will be increasing patrols at Millikan High School to ensure student safety.
The Long Beach Police Department is leading the investigation, but the case is also under investigation by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.