Local News in Brief : Father’s Efforts Fail as Gunfire Victim Dies

An 18-year-old Sun Valley man, who was shot in the head early Saturday near his home, died despite his father’s desperate efforts to get him to a hospital, Los Angeles police reported.

The victim, Modesto Miranda, had been drinking beer with several other people, including his father, outside a house in the 10500 block of Cantara Street about 1 a.m. when several shots were fired by someone in the group, Sgt. Barry Romano said.

When the shooting was over, Oscar Miranda, 32, found his son shot through the head, Romano said. The father put his son in his car and drove to the family’s nearby home in the 8100 block of Wheatland Avenue, where he called paramedics.

The teen-ager was taken by the paramedics to St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank, where he died a short time later, Romano said.

Police on Saturday were seeking Ascension Beltran, 21, of Sun Valley as a suspect in the shooting, for which no motive has been established.

Beltran is the brother of Manuel Rios Beltran, 22, who was arrested nine days ago in the slaying of a security guard outside a Sun Valley bar, Romano said.