5 at Funeral in Pomona Injured in Gang Attack

The graveside service was almost over when Father Michael Burns heard the first shot.

“It was like a popgun or a car backfiring in the distance,” he said. “Then I heard a second one, and people started screaming, ‘Get down! Get down! They’re shooting!’ ”

Unbelievably, they were.

As many as four gunmen presumed to be members of a Pomona gang opened fire on 250 mourners at a funeral there Friday morning for the victim of a drive-by shooting, injuring four of them. A fifth mourner, an 80-year-old woman, was injured when she was accidentally catapulted from her wheelchair by someone trying to rush her to safety.

Some of the mourners, thought by police to be members of a rival gang, scaled a wall on the south side of Holy Cross Cemetery, firing their own weapons at the fleeing assailants. The chase culminated at the Philadelphia Elementary School two blocks away, where teachers locked students inside their classrooms as gunfire was exchanged on campus.

Bullets pierced the windows of two first-grade classrooms, but nobody was injured.

Patrols Stepped Up

Saturday, Pomona police stepped up plainclothes and uniformed patrols in territories controlled by the 12th Street and Cherrieville gangs, Latino groups that have locked horns for decades. Warfare between the gangs has claimed at least 14 lives over the last eight years, according to police.

“We’re not anticipating anything right now,” Senior Officer Thomas Andrew said Saturday. “That is, for the next five minutes.

“It’s hard to say what will take place next,” he added. “Their memories are long.”

The 12th Street gang, which started 30 years ago, is believed to have 150 to 200 members, with a hard-core nucleus of about 50. Cherrieville, which was organized in the early 1960s, is about half that large.

Police know of nothing that triggered Friday’s attack beyond a bitter and long-lived hostility. If there was a more immediate cause, it wasn’t apparent at Holy Cross Cemetery on Saturday.

Blood spattered the cement apron at the base of a statue of the Virgin Mary. A mound of flowers was heaped on the grave marker of 21-year-old Robert Hernandez, with a white ribbon that said “Beloved Son” tangled among them.

A woman who said she was a family friend stood at the grave. The grave of her own son, the victim of a drive-by shooting in 1985, was next to that of Hernandez, and she had come by to place flowers on it, as she does every Saturday. Elsewhere in the cemetery, she said, were the graves of two nephews who died the same way.

She knew Hernandez and attended his funeral. “He was a nice boy,” she said, “not the type you’d think would get killed.

“Those boys who came here yesterday weren’t human,” she said. “They had the devil’s heart in them. It was ugly--it was a nightmare.”

Father Burns, associate pastor of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Pomona, agreed.

‘Crying Their Eyes Out’

“It was absolute pandemonium,” he said. “Men and women were screaming. They were crying their eyes out. You’ve never seen such tension, such deep anger, such frustration.”

When the first shots erupted, Burns dove for cover, lying on his stomach next to the casket of Hernandez, to whom he’d given last rites on March 29.

“I immediately started praying,” he said. “My head was down. I crawled on my stomach, and saw a lot of people climbing over the wall.

“By now, I was quite together,” he said. “To my left, I saw a little girl, 10 or 11 years old. There was a three- or four-inch pool of blood spreading on her blouse between her breast and her shoulder. I immediately anointed the child.”

Burns also said he didn’t know what sparked the incident. “These gangs are quite powerful,” he said. “They have people who are targets--maybe not this week or next--but definitely targets.”

Not Hard-Core Gang Member

However, Robert Hernandez apparently never was one of them. Hernandez, who was shot at his girlfriend’s house the day after he presented her with an engagement ring, was not a hard-core gang member, Detective Douglas McCormack said. “But he was associating with gang members, and he was in a pretty well-known gang area when he was killed.”

Holy Cross Cemetery is in neither gang’s territory, but it is not exempt from violence.

“I’ve gone through a lot of these (funerals of drive-by shooting victims), and let me tell you--they’re scary,” said Dick Byrum, a counselor at Holy Cross. “You never know what’s going to happen. They can turn into a holocaust.”

Police said they frequently monitor such funerals because of threats but they could recall nothing to rival Friday’s violence.

Terror also pervaded the Philadelphia Elementary School when the gun battle spread.

“We were at our desks doing math, and then everyone said the terrorists are attacking,” fifth-grader Bobby Spencer said. “We heard people running through the hallways, and we heard a banging at the door, but we didn’t open it. Everyone was really scared.”

Mother Irate

Bobby’s mother, Sandy Spencer, was irate. “I grew up here, I went to schools here, and this place has been my life,” she said. “But as of June 1, I’m history. I’m moving. This isn’t my town any more.”

Injured in Friday’s attack were:

- Maria Guzman Hernandez, 37, of Ontario, who was shot in the right hand. She was treated and released at Pomona Valley Community Hospital.

- Her daughter, Sally Hernandez, 16, who was shot in the neck and is listed in satisfactory condition at Garfield Medical Center in Monterey Park.

- Another daughter, Rachel Hernandez, 10, who was shot in the shoulder and is listed in satisfactory condition at the same hospital.

- Maria Gonzales, 80, of Ontario, was listed in stable condition at Pomona Valley Community Hospital with a hip injury.

- Robert Gonzales, 30, of Pomona, who was struck in the mouth by a ricocheting bullet. He was treated and released from Queen of the Valley hospital.

No arrests have been made, but police are seeking at least one suspect, according to McCormack.