Fullerton : Suspect Held After Man, Baby Are Shot in Home

A gunman interrupted a family supper, shooting a baby and an adult guest before being wrestled to the ground by a crowd including the child’s outraged grandfather, authorities said Monday.

Guillermo Gonzales, 30, of Fullerton, was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Fullerton Police Sgt. Jeff Roop said.

The family was sitting down to dinner about 6:15 p.m. when Gonzales knocked at the door, Roop said. The officer said Gonzales less than an hour earlier had quarreled at a nearby market with a 14-year-old living at the house. The youth’s name was withheld.

As Ernie Gonzalez Sr., who is not related to the suspect, went to the door, those at the dinner table heard shots, Roop said. Ernie Gonzalez and others ran outside, where they and bystanders tackled the suspect and held him until the arrival of a police officer who had been patrolling in the area.

The officer had heard the shots and came upon the scuffle, Roop said. The officer arrested Guillermo Gonzales and seized as evidence a semiautomatic pistol, Roop said.

Injured in the gunfire was Ernie Gonzalez’s 10-month-old grandson, Frank Gonzalez Jr., who was struck in the calf, and Rodney Charles Morris, 30, a house guest, who also was hit in the leg.

The baby was in fair condition at Kaiser Foundation Hospital in Anaheim, and Morris, a Fullerton resident, was in satisfactory condition at Martin Luther Hospital Medical Center, also in Anaheim, hospital officials said.

Gonzales, who suffered bruises in the scuffle, was treated at St. Jude Hospital in Fullerton before being booked into City Jail, Roop said.