San Pedro Neighborhood Mourns for Boy Killed in Drive-By Shooting

Thirteen-year-old Michael Fox lay dying from a gunshot wound near his San Pedro apartment Friday evening when his teen-age cousin rushed up and asked if he was going to live.

Fox, who had been hurled from his bicycle by the blast, answered bravely, “Yeah.” And though he struggled to say more, family members said, he couldn’t. By the time his father arrived minutes later to cuddle him in his arms, Fox was unconscious.

The teen-ager, who was shot once in the chest, died en route to San Pedro Peninsula Hospital.

Fox had become a grisly statistic: yet another victim of a drive-by shooting. A rare occurrence in San Pedro, police note.

Like so many Los Angeles families have done before them, the Fox family gathered Saturday to grieve and search for elusive answers.

“He wasn’t the type of kid to provoke something like this,” said Willie Fox, Michael’s father. “I can’t understand why somebody would drive by and shoot a kid they didn’t know.”

“If they had known him they wouldn’t have shot him,” said Fox, standing in the kitchen, crowded with friends and family. “He wasn’t the type to get under your skin. He was the type to get in your heart.”

Two Youths Arrested

Shortly after the shooting, police arrested two youths, ages 16 and 17, who have been booked on suspicion of murder. Officers Margaret Mazotta and Robert Sabado spotted a car with a broken window three miles from the murder scene and chased it when the occupants spotted police and sped away. They captured the pair when they fled on foot and confiscated the car, which authorities said had been stolen.

Police said the pair deny they are gang members. The assailants shouted gang slogans before shooting several times from a car. Michael Fox was not a gang member, authorities said.

Fox lived in a rough-and-tumble Rancho San Pedro housing project near the harbor that is a haven for drug dealing, said Sgt. Marty Cotwright. But most of the project’s youths have managed to stay out of gangs, he added. Most gang members police spot there are outsiders who cruise in from Wilmington, Harbor City and farther north.

Fox’s best friend, Cory Davenport, said his pal could easily identify gang members and always avoided them.

The 13-year-old was a sports fanatic who played on soccer, basketball, baseball and football teams. Some of his coaches dropped by the apartment Saturday to pay their respects.

He performed just as well with pen and paper. His crumpled report card, kept in a kitchen drawer, was proudly shown to a visitor. His teacher at Dana Junior High School had noted that Fox was “a pleasure to have in class.”

The murder left neighbors in the housing project jittery.

Mike Smith, 27, hearing the gunshots from his girlfriend’s apartment Friday evening, looked out the window in time to see the getaway car drive off slowly. One of the assailants’ bullets pierced his girlfriend’s steel front door and chipped the exterior stucco of another apartment.

Smith stood under the tree where Fox had fallen less than 24 hours before and looked nervous when he saw a procession of three cars barreling down the street with horns honking. “Is that a wedding?” he asked. “I don’t know, we might have to be running in the house right now!”

He relaxed when he saw the bride and groom.