Youths Play With Gun; Chula Vista Girl, 13, Is Killed

A 13-year-old girl was fatally wounded Wednesday in Chula Vista when she was shot with a gun belonging to a U. S. Border Patrol agent that the agent’s son and the girl’s younger brother had been playing with, authorities said Thursday.

Crystal Ray Ross, 13, of the 700 block of Date Avenue, was pronounced dead about 1 a.m. Thursday at UCSD Medical Center, according to Deputy Coroner Jerry Hillbrand.

She was shot once in the head about 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, said Chula Vista Police Sgt. Richard Strickland.

Crystal and her 11-year-old brother were at an apartment in the 200 block of Quintard Street where her 14-year-old boyfriend lived with his parents, Strickland said. The names of the Border Patrol officer and the boys were not released.

The youths had been at the apartment for about an hour when the shooting occurred. The boyfriend’s parents were at work.

The youths found a .357 Magnum and bullets in a bedroom, Strickland said. Knives and ammunition were found in a box in a closet and the gun was found under a floorboard, Strickland said.

The weapons belonged to the boyfriend’s father, a Border Patrol agent, Strickland said.

The 11-year-old boy loaded a “wad cutter”--a bullet used for target shooting--into the gun, Strickland said. The gun was left on the floor, where Crystal’s boyfriend picked it up a short while later, thinking it was empty, Strickland said.