Girl, 12, Shot to Death in Busy Mall of Orange; Boy, 12, Seized

As scores of gift-laden holiday shoppers watched in horror, a boy shot and killed a 12-year-old girl Monday evening in the bustling Mall of Orange, police said.

Jacalyn Calabrese, a student at Cerro Villa Middle School in Orange, was pronounced dead where she fell to the brown tile floor outside a Sears store after being shot once in the head, Orange Police Sgt. Art Romo said.

The gunman fled, eluding two Sears security guards who pursued him. After using a helicopter and police dogs to conduct a massive, two-hour search of a nearby neighborhood, officers arrested a 12-year-old suspect.

Joseph Padilla, who lives on Cumberland Road, said the suspect stopped by his house to see his son, Mike, whom he described as a close friend.

“ ‘Help me, Mike, I think I have killed someone,’ ” the boy allegedly told his son, Padilla said.

Padilla said the sobbing boy would not initially say why he was upset. But the boy talked with his mother, who came to the house with police.

Padilla said the boy came from “a good family.”

“I can’t believe this happened to them. My son said it was an accident, and I believe him,” he said.

Police declined to release the suspect’s name because of his age. But one witness said the girl’s friends yelled, “Juan did it! Juan did it!” immediately after the shooting.

David Harris, one of the two Sears security guards who heard the shot, said a look of disbelief swept over the gunman’s face immediately after the shooting.

“He just looked dazed,” Harris said. “He just kept looking at her. I guess he was surprised he shot her.”

Fellow guard Paul Maund said the boy appeared to tuck a pistol in his waistband as he ran.

“He was yelling, ‘Oh my God! Oh my God!’ ”

Romo said police had yet to recover the murder weapon and have not determined a motive.