Boy, 9, Fatally Shot Near Home in Venice; Attack Linked to Rivalry Between Gangs

Pedro and Maria Gonzalez had warned their 9-year-old son, Jorge, about the street gangs that frequent the mostly impoverished, racially mixed Venice neighborhood where the family lives.

“I told him, ‘Don’t go over where the gangs are,’ ” the mother recalled Tuesday. “ ‘Stay close to home.’ ”

The boy heeded the advice, but even that wasn’t enough Monday night.

Shot Near Home

In an area next to his family’s back yard, the boy was fatally shot in the head and another bystander was wounded. Detectives described the shooting as an apparent retaliatory attack in which the victims were caught between a gunman and his intended target.

“They just didn’t care about innocent victims,” Los Angeles police spokesman Cmdr. William Booth said of the assailants.

Detectives said it was about 9:20 p.m. when a passenger in a white compact car--perhaps a Toyota--fired at a group of bystanders and youngsters, including Jorge, in the 400 block of West Indiana Avenue, part of the Oakwood section of Venice.

“He didn’t say anything,” Abel Gonzalez, 12, brother of the young victim, said of the gunman. “He just started shooting.”

Investigators said the car sped away immediately.

The boy, shot once in the head, died at Daniel Freeman Marina Hospital in Marina del Rey, officials said.

Javier Gallegos, 24, of Santa Monica, wounded in the arm, was treated at UCLA Medical Center, police said.

Booth said the intended targets, apparently members of a rival street gang, were standing in the background, several yards from where the boy and Gallegos stood.

“We do think rival gangs were involved, but the precise reason, we don’t have that,” Booth said.

Detectives were continuing their search for the assailant and the car’s driver.

According to police, the Oakwood area, which has become a haven for cocaine trafficking in recent years, has had gang problems since the mid-1970s. The neighborhood is getting more police attention as young professionals, eager to live in moderately priced homes near the ocean, have begun moving in.

Area residents said Monday night’s shooting was the third in recent weeks.

“The gangs are always messing with people,” said one resident, who asked not to be identified.

Most of Jorge’s playmates said the incident has prompted parents to lecture them about playing outdoors.

“We already know that when they (gang members) come around, we have to leave,” said Veronica Reynoso, 12. “Now, our parents say we can hardly play outside.”

Pedro Gonzalez said his son, a third-grader at nearby Westminster Avenue School, loved to play outside, often teaming up with friends for a softball game or riding his bicycle.

Clutching a school photo portrait of the dead boy, the father, a self-employed auto mechanic, said he would move the family of four girls and two other boys away from Venice, because of the gang violence.

“I don’t want another of my kids to be killed by the gangs,” he said softly in Spanish. “I’ll be looking for a tranquil place where we can live in peace.”

Times staff writer Alan Citron contributed to this article.