Shotgun Blast Kills Boy, 14; 2 Others Seized

A 14-year-old boy was shot and killed near South Gate Monday, and two 13-year-olds were arrested and booked on suspicion of murder, authorities said.

Investigators said all three belonged to the same gang. However, the 20-year-old sister of one of the suspects said the shooting was an accident and that “all three boys were friends.”

“They hung around together,” she said.

The victim was killed by a shotgun blast shortly before 2 p.m. in the 2400 block of Cole Place in Walnut Park, an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, Sheriff’s Deputy Pat Hunter said. The identity of the boy was not immediately available.

Homicide detectives said one of the 13-year-old suspects claimed the victim had killed himself. The other 13-year-old said the shooting was an accident, Hunter said.

Detectives arrested both boys after additional questioning, and they are being held at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey. No motive for the shooting had been established, Hunter said.

The sister of one of the suspects, however, said “the little boy was playing with the gun and the gun went off.” She said she was inside the house and the boys were in a rear house playing video games.

The woman said her brother came inside and announced that they had to call the police. He dialed 911 himself, she said.

The boy died at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

The dead boy was shot in the neck, she said. When she went outside, she said, he “wasn’t breathing.”

She said her brother told her the boys thought the gun “didn’t have any bullets, and then it went off.”

She said she had never seen the gun before and that the boy who died might have brought it with him to the house.