'Terrified' ex-wife of former cop got restraining order before he allegedly killed her and his teen girlfriend

Amber Rodriguez was "terrified" in the weeks before she died and had been granted an order of protection against Elias Huizar, her ex-husband, who was accused of fatally shooting her outside the elementary school where she worked on the day his teenage girlfriend was found dead in Washington state.

Rodriguez filed for divorce from Huizar in December 2020, Tara Symons told NBC News. Symons was appointed as the guardian ad litem in the divorce proceedings to handle custody issues involving their children.

Rodriguez was killed outside William Wiley Elementary School in West Richland on Monday, a little over a year after her divorce was finalized on April 7, 2023, Symons said.

Court documents say a gunman wearing black clothing and a black hat shot Rodriguez, 31, as classes were being let out shortly before 3:30 p.m.

The pair's 9-year-old son witnessed the killing, the court filing says. They have one other child together.

Later that day, police found the body of Angelica Santos, 17, whom police described as Huizar's "girlfriend."

'She was terrified'

Police said at a news conference Wednesday that they did not know of a motive for the slaying of Rodriguez but that there "were some domestic matters that were pending in court."

Symons said Rodriguez had "safety concerns" throughout her divorce and had recently been granted an order of protection for one year.

"She was terrified. She was terrified," said Symons, who last spoke to Rodriguez a few weeks ago.

According to Symons, Rodriguez had sought a protection order against her ex-husband, but it was denied. After Symons connected her with a local attorney, the order was granted.

Rodriguez, however, still had concerns, Symons said.

"She knew how he was and that it was just paper," she said.

Because of her fears, Symons said, Rodriguez began working at William Wiley Elementary School so she could keep an eye on her son.

It's not clear whether Rodriguez had expressed her concerns to the school. A district spokesperson said she began working there in September 2022 as a paraeducator.

"Our district has suffered a profound loss in the passing of Amber Rodriguez, a remarkable paraeducator," the district said in a statement. "Our deepest condolences go out to Amber’s family during this difficult time."

'So many systems failed'

Symons said Rodriguez's family is "devastated."

"This poor family. … They tried everything to stay safe from him. And so many systems failed this family," she said, crying.

At the time of the killing, Huizar was under conditional freedom after he was accused of third-degree rape of a child and second-degree rape, Benton County Prosecutor Eric Eisinger said.

According to court filings, two teenagers went to police in early February after a 17-year-old girl alleged to officers that she woke up to Huizar’s performing oral sex on her 16-year-old friend, who had "passed out" after the three had been drinking alcohol.

The filing alleged that Huizar, a former officer with the Yakima Police Department in Washington, and the 17-year-old "have a child in common" and that they met while he was employed as a resource officer at her middle school.

At the news conference Wednesday, authorities identified the 17-year-old as Angelica Santos and said she had been found dead at a residence in West Richland. Police described Santos as Huizar's "girlfriend" and said she was the mother of a 1-year-old boy Huizar kidnapped Monday.

The child was recovered safely after Huizar, 39, led Oregon State Patrol troopers on a pursuit that ended with his losing control of his vehicle and hitting a median. Huizar fatally shot himself in the head as troopers "contacted" his vehicle, Oregon State Police Capt. Kyle Kennedy said.

West Richland Police Chief Thomas Grego said Santos' death remains under investigation and her cause of death is "undetermined at this time, pending an autopsy."

Mother of teen 'girlfriend' says Huizar 'brainwashed' her

Huizar met Santos while he was employed as a resource officer at her middle school, said her mother, Tiffany Penaloza.

The relationship didn't begin until about 2½ years ago, when Santos was a freshman in high school. Penaloza, 34, said her daughter kept details about the relationship, like Huizar's age and his real name, secret in the beginning.

It wasn't until Santos' son was about 6 months old that the family learned the truth.

Despite the family's concerns, Penaloza said, the relationship was "really good" at first. Things started "slowly going downhill" after his arrest in February. 

Huizar became controlling, she recalled. When Santos was around her family, he would allegedly make her wear an Apple AirPod with him on the phone. She said he wanted to listen to her conversations to make sure she wasn’t saying anything negative about him or disclosing details about the rape case. 

Two days before she died, Penaloza said, Huizar became angry when her daughter refused to let him eavesdrop on a conversation she was having with her grandmother. 

"That made him mad. He called her at least a minimum of 20 times back to back to back to back because she wasn’t answering his calls," she said. "I was like, ‘Are you sure it’s a good idea for you to go home?’ She goes, ‘No, I talked to him and he’s still mad, but he’s not mad where he’ll do anything.'"

Throughout the relationship, Santos had tried to distance herself from Huizar, her mother said. But she struggled with the idea of breaking up her family.

“She had this vision for her son that he’d have this perfect little family," she said. "And so as much as she was not OK with everything, she wanted to be able to give her son everything that she didn’t have. So she put up with a lot of things that were not OK."

The family tried to intervene, Penaloza said. Santos' grandmother had been trying to find resources that could help when she was killed. 

"He had her so brainwashed into believing so much stuff that wasn’t real," Penaloza said. "He had her believing that they were going to be the perfect family. He got her out of Yakima into a better living environment and a better place to raise the baby. She was with him, but she was hesitant at the same time."

Employed at school after lying about past misconduct

Huizar worked for the Yakima Police Department from 2013 until February 2022, when he resigned immediately following discipline, a department spokesperson had said. The department did not disclose the reason for the discipline.

In November 2021, he began the application process for a substitute teaching position with the Richland School District, a district spokesperson said Wednesday. He was a substitute teacher during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.

The district said it had received references from one of Huizar’s former employers, Franklin Middle School in the Yakima School District, where he was a school resource officer. The principal and the vice principal of Franklin described Huizar as a “very good” and “excellent” candidate, the Richland spokesperson said.

The Yakima School District did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Huizar also completed a drug screening and was fingerprinted, and he passed a mandatory eight-hour STEDI Subskills Training Course, the Richland district spokesperson said. The spokesperson said he lied on his application and answered “no” to questions about whether he had ever been the subject of misconduct allegations or resigned while allegations were pending.

The district said in a statement that it was “extremely disheartened that information about Mr. Huizar’s past was not disclosed to us.”

“No past investigations or allegations appeared in Mr. Huizar’s background checks before he was hired and nothing was disclosed by Mr. Huizar,” the Richland School District said. “We take the process of hiring staff very seriously and pride ourselves on the quality and character of our staff members.”

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com