Boy, 9, Killed by Stray Bullet While Playing

ANAHEIM — A 9-year-old boy playing in a front yard was shot in the head and killed instantly Tuesday by a teen-ager inside the house, police said.

Diego Martinez Rios died at 5:25 p.m. in the yard of a home in the 300 block of South Bush Street, a few doors from his own apartment. Police said that the the teen-ager, who initially fled the scene, surrendered more than three hours later. Officers were trying to determine late Thursday if the shooting was accidental.

Lt. John Cross said the teen-ager, who was in a bedroom, apparently fired a single shot from a handgun which hit the youngster in the front of the head.

Witnesses who heard the shot said the teen-ager ran from the house.

But at 9 p.m., his mother, who refused to give her name, arrived at Anaheim police headquarters to talk to investigators. She said her son, a 15-year-old Garden Grove High School student, had returned to the house and was cooperating in the investigation.

“He was just scared,” she said. “So he ran away. It was an accident. He’s very scared.”

Sgt. Tom Mathisen said police were questioning the youth at the police station late Tuesday night but had not arrested him. Neighbors said the teen-ager’s brother had rented a room in the house for the past two months and that the teen-ager lived there at least part time. Their mother lives nearby.

Neighbors and police said the 15-year-old and Diego, a fourth-grader at Lincoln Elementary School in Garden Grove, knew each other well.

Other people were in the house at the time of the shooting, but not in the room with the teen-ager, police said.

A revolver was recovered at the scene.

Dozens of stunned neighbors and relatives gathered around the single-story, two-bedroom house for several hours as police conducted an investigation. Diego’s father, Guillermo Rios, came home from work Tuesday to find police surrounding the house on Bush street, which is just yards from his own house.

“He’s a really good boy,” said cousin Gloria Bermudez, crying. “Whatever you said to him he obeyed. He never complained.”

The boy’s uncle, Daniel Alvarado, lives nearby and said he ran to the house when he heard crying and screaming.

He said his nephew had brought home a progress report from school that afternoon showing he was doing well.

“He was a very active boy who played a lot. He was a good kid.”

Jesse Pena, who lives across the street, said: “When I heard a shot, I just thought it was kids playing with firecrackers. Then I heard all the screams, and I went over to look, and I saw the little boy lying on the ground and he was covered with blood.