Man Saves Child From Bullets--Loses Kidney

A Cal State Long Beach football star was in fair condition Tuesday at a Long Beach hospital after being shot in the back as he lunged to protect a 3-year-old girl from a spray of gunfire directed at a children’s Halloween party.

Mark Seay, 21, the team’s leading receiver, had his right kidney removed after the shooting, which occurred Sunday as he helped with the party at the Long Beach apartment he shares with his sister and her husband, police said.

A 17-year-old suspected gang member was being held for allegedly shooting into the apartment in anger over a casual comment uttered to him or a friend riding by on a bicycle. Another youth was being sought.

“He was attempting to very heroically shield a youngster from gunshots,” Long Beach Police Detective Bob Laine said of Seay.

The shooting took place as Seay was helping his sister, Mary Rosborough, and her husband, Larry, transform their Henderson Avenue apartment into a “scary house” for more than 20 costumed children attending their Halloween party with about a dozen adults.

Passing Bicyclist

Police said they have no evidence that any of the people in the apartment are gang members. Larry Rosborough, a 25-year-old warehouse worker, said a brother-in-law, who was working on a car outside the apartment, made the mistake Sunday, however, of jokingly asking a passing bicyclist, “What’s happening, Blood?”

Rosborough said the bicyclist apparently was affiliated with the Crips gang, the archrivals of the Bloods. About 10 minutes after the comment, three youths in a Volkswagen went by wearing blue bandannas and baseball caps, the Crips’ colors, he said, and one of them fired several shots from the street.

Police were called, but before they arrived a gray sedan pulled up and a gunman fired several more shots into the front of the apartment, he said. A few minutes later, the sedan returned and one of the occupants walked to the rear apartment and fired six bullets through the screen of a window.

A neighbor, Lajuana King, 28, said she saw a man fire a gun from a crouched stance in the courtyard of the apartment house.

Rosborough said most of the children had been herded to the hallway and rear portion of the apartment in preparation of leading them through the “scary house,” but that the 3-year-old, a family friend, was near the window.

Seay, he said, repeatedly told her to stay down as one bullet penetrated a bedroom wall and lodged in a headboard and another smashed through a stereo.

“He jumped on top of the kid,” Rosborough said. “He dragged the girl (into the bedroom) until he knew it was safe.”

Only then, he said, did Seay realize he had been shot.

Youth Arrested

Seay was rushed to Memorial Medical Center of Long Beach where he remained Tuesday in the critical care ward. The bullet pierced his right kidney, grazed his liver and lodged near his heart, a hospital spokesman said. The bullet was not removed.

Police arrived soon after the shooting, about 6:45 p.m., and later arrested the 17-year-old on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon and shooting into an occupied dwelling in connection with the incident.

Laine said police officials are investigating how long it took officers to respond to the call to authorities.

Rosborough said he now plans to move after living at the apartment for more than four years. His neighbor, King, said she also is fed up with violence along the street and plans to move in January.

Long Beach State football coach Larry Reisbig said the quick thinking by Seay was typical of the player, whom he called “a type of kid who leads by action.”

After a visit to the hospital Tuesday, he said Seay was in such good spirits that he quipped that he planned to try to play Saturday in the game against San Jose State.

Reisbig said he had not been told yet how the injury will affect Seay’s athletic career, although the player will not return to action this season.

A graduate of San Bernardino High School, Seay played minor league baseball in the Texas Rangers system before he decided to go to college and entered Long Beach State on a football scholarship.

The 6-foot sophomore has had 31 receptions for 480 yards and a touchdown in the eight games played so far this season and averaged 21.4 yards on kickoff returns, according to the university.