SAN CLEMENTE : Girl Shooting Victim Home From Hospital

Four-year-old Prisca Caudillo, the victim of a Christmas Eve drive-by shooting, returned to her north San Clemente home Friday.

“That is the best thing, to have all your family together,” said her mother, Jova Caudillo, 22.

Only a few small scabs remained on Prisca’s torso, upper arm and face, where she was struck by pellets from a shotgun in what is believed to be the first gang-style, drive-by shooting in the city, police said. She was released Thursday from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center.

The girl would not speak with reporters and appeared overwhelmed by the event that thrust her family into the public’s eye.

Pedro Bonillo, Jova’s brother-in-law, said the preschooler remembers the evening of the attack and has feared leaving the apartment where she lives with her parents, two sisters and a brother.

The girl brought home an armload of toys and dolls that were given to her at the hospital by family, friends and strangers sympathetic to her plight, Caudillo said.

While her brother and sister busied themselves with some of the toys--a toy camera, a huge teddy bear, a toy horse and a baby doll--Prisca straightened the dress on her new, pigtailed Cabbage Patch doll, a brief smile crossing her lips.

Prisca’s father, Rodrigo Caudillo, 25, returned to work for a gardening service after missing three days this week to stay with his daughter in the hospital, Bonillo said.

Police have no suspects in the incident. A spokesman said Friday the investigation has developed no new information.

Law enforcement authorities have been trying to determine the significance of the attack in terms of South Orange County gang violence.

The family and next-door neighbors say they have no gang connections. The incident occurred in a block marked with the graffiti of a small, local gang known as San Clemente Varrio Chico.

Some residents said the shooting could have been sparked by rivalry with a gang in San Juan Capistrano known as the SJC Boys.

However, police said both gangs are small-time groups that merely emulate the behavior of gangs in Santa Ana and Los Angeles County, but do not involve themselves in serious crime.

“I don’t know why this happened,” Bonillo said. “We’ve never had any problems like this around here before.”