Family Party Turns to Tragedy as Boy Is Fatally Shot

A Santa Ana birthday party turned into tragedy Saturday when an 18-year-old man who police said had been drinking fired a gunshot that ricocheted and fatally wounded his 5-year-old cousin.

Moises A. Magana, 18, a Santa Ana construction worker was being held on suspicion of murder, police said.

The victim, Alejandro Magana, was playing in the backyard of his home, surrounded by a crowd of his young cousins. Moises Magana pulled out a newly purchased handgun and fired four test shots at a nearby tree trunk, Santa Ana Police Lt. David Salazar said Sunday.

One bullet ricocheted off the ground, police said, hitting the boy in the back about 8:15 p.m. Alejandro cried out, “Daddy,” ran across the crowded yard to his father and apparently died in his father’s arms.

“When he called, I stood up and go get him,” Santiago Magana, 27, said. “When I pick him up, I see blood in my arms, shirt, pants. His body is bloody.”

According to Santiago Magana, Moises Magana brought a .38-caliber handgun to a birthday party for Santiago’s brother, Manuel, 23. Moises planned to test the gun to see how it worked, Santiago Magana said.

“I say, ‘Don’t do that,’ ” Santiago Magana recounted Sunday in halting English. “He (Moises) say ‘OK,’ he’ll put it somewhere else. I don’t know where he leave the gun.”

After Santiago Magana asked his cousin to put away the gun, the party continued normally, with relatives talking and playing music at the home in the 900 block of North Euclid Street. A small band of children were scuffling in the hard-packed dirt under a backyard tree.

Santiago’s oldest son, Alejandro, was playing with the children, when Moises--who police said had been drinking--pulled the gun out of his waistband and began shooting at the tree and the ground underneath it.

“I heard shooting, but I don’t know who’s shooting,” said Santiago Magana, who had been sitting on a bench across the small yard. “I see the kids close to the tree. I’m sitting here, and he (Alejandro) call me: ‘Daddy.’ ”

Family members telephoned the police, who arrived at the small tan house before paramedics, Salazar said. Santa Ana Police Officer Craig Adams drove the wounded boy, still in his father’s arms, to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center. The boy was pronounced dead on arrival.

“The shooting scared the kid, (who) ran and was struck once at close range,” Salazar said. “It (the bullet) entered his back near the left shoulder and exited the side near the elbow. It went through one of the lungs and hit the heart, and he was dead at the scene.”

The boy died just weeks after starting kindergarten at Rosita Elementary School in Santa Ana.

After Santiago Magana left his oldest son’s side, he returned home to find out what had happened. He was told that as Moises began shooting, Santiago’s brother, David Magana, 25, also of Santa Ana, hit the young man’s arm, knocking the gun to the ground.

David then grabbed his own son, who was covered with blood, but the boy was fine, Santiago said. “I think my son’s blood went on him.”

After the shooting, Moises ran to his apartment on Sullivan Street in Santa Ana, where police found him about 9:45 p.m. Moises was arrested on suspicion of murder and was being held Sunday in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

According to Salazar, random shooting is an increasing problem in Santa Ana, and one that escalates on holidays and weekends. The lieutenant said his department receives several random-shooting reports each week.

Many Reports of Guns

He said he is surprised that deaths “don’t happen more often because of all the guns fired in the city. We receive an awful lot of reports. With the carelessness with which guns are being used, the possibility of these type of tragedies could be more frequent.”

Santa Ana is not the only problem area. In Los Angeles, a man was killed in front of his wife and daughter and a 13-year-old boy was shot to death last New Year’s Eve in unrelated incidents involving the illegal, but widespread practice of greeting the New Year by firing guns into the air.

On Sunday morning, well-wishers streamed through the small house where Santiago Magana, a metal worker, lives with what is left of his family: son Erik, 4, and his pregnant wife Griselda, 23, who should deliver their third child within the month.

Leaning against the corner of his home, Santiago Magana surveyed the yard where only hours earlier his joy had soured--a dusty yard littered with benches, a small red bicycle, a black-and-yellow scooter and a tree riddled with bullet holes.

“Everyone’s pretty sad,” Magana said, his eyes red and swollen. “I can’t explain it. Everyone’s being together. . . . I haven’t seen Moises. I tried to talk to him, to see what happened, but the police won’t let me see him. The thing we want to know is if we can see Moises and ask him why he shoot, why he do that.”