3 Arrested in Shooting of 4-Year-Old Girl

Local law enforcement investigators, with the aid of the Orange County district attorney’s gang detail, have arrested an Oceanside man in connection with a Christmas Eve drive-by shooting that left a 4-year-old girl hospitalized.

Floyd Avery, 18, described by acquaintances as an unemployed high school dropout, was arrested at his mother’s home at 2 p.m. Thursday, police officials said. He has no prior criminal record.

Avery’s arrest was made public on Friday after police arrested a San Juan Capistrano juvenile and named another who was already being held in Orange County Juvenile Hall on an unrelated charge, San Clemente Police Chief Albert C. Ehlow said.

In addition, police said they have recovered a shotgun believed to have been used in the shooting.

Avery, who moved to Oceanside from San Clemente almost two years ago, was charged with attempted murder and shooting at an occupied dwelling, Ehlow said. He was being held in Orange County Jail in lieu of $250,000 bail.

The two juveniles, whose names were withheld, face similar charges, according to Ehlow.

“We put a lot of work into this,” Ehlow said, adding that the investigation is continuing. “We’re still trying to sort things out.”

Despite the involvement of the district attorney’s gang unit, police and investigators for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department maintained on Friday that they are not sure if the shooting was gang-related.

“We’re getting a lot of conflicting stories,” Ehlow said. “Until we get it straightened out, we won’t know if it’s gang-related. It could be a personal thing.”

The shooting victim, Prisca Lorena Caudillo, was hit in the face and upper body by shotgun pellets as she was playing on the porch of a neighbor’s second-floor apartment in the 100 block of Avenida Pelayo.

She was released on Dec. 28 from Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

The family was unavailable for comment Friday.

Police initially had speculated that the shooting was the result of a feud between two gangs--the San Clemente Varrio Chico and the San Juan Boys, also called the SJC Boys.

But law enforcement officials later said that they had no proof that the shooting--the first of its type in South County--was linked to gang activity.

Ehlow confirmed that the two juvenile suspects, both 17 and Latino, were San Juan Capistrano residents. But he declined to say if the two were members of the SJC Boys.

Assistant Dist. Atty. Martin Engquist said that the gang unit was asked to aid in the investigation at the request of the San Clemente Police Department.

“We got involved because there was an indication that there was group involvement,” Engquist said. But like other law enforcement officials, he was reluctant to say that the shooting was the result of gang activity.

Called ‘Sleepy’

Meanwhile, Avery’s former classmates in Oceanside, who said Avery wore thick glasses and was nicknamed “Sleepy,” expressed mixed feelings about the arrest.

While some said that they believed Avery was capable of committing such a crime, others defended him, saying he was “mellow and friendly” and spent a lot of time with his girlfriend and 1-year-old daughter.

“He was probably just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said David Rivera, 21, as he stood with a group of friends in a park near Avery’s home.

“I don’t think he would have pulled a trigger,” Rivera added.

Acquaintances described Avery as a quiet person and one who did not pick fights. Although not a gang member himself, he often hung around with known gang members in the neighborhood around the high school and often visited friends in South County.

“He’s like a home boy,” said one 16-year-old girl who asked not to be identified. “He was not part of a gang. He just hung around with some gang members.”

Avery’s mother, visibly shaken by her son’s arrest, declined to be interviewed or give her first name.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she said, holding back tears before going back into her modest, single-story home located in an older section of the city.

Police would not give details of the connection between Avery and the San Juan Capistrano juveniles who were arrested on Friday.

“We believe they know each other,” Ehlow said. “We’re not certain what the relationship is.”

Sgt. Richard Downing said that investigators believe that the two juveniles were with Avery in his car when the shots were fired on Christmas Eve.

Suspects believed to be riding in two other cars are still at large, Downing said.

One of the other cars, a 1978 Buick, was found abandoned along Interstate 5 in Capistrano Beach shortly after the shooting, police said. It was later found to be stolen in Los Angeles.

On the night of the shooting, Avery reported that his light-blue, 1973 Datsun had been stolen “somewhere on Camino de los Mares” in San Clemente, police said.

Two days later, Avery’s car was found, stripped down, off San Juan Creek Road in south San Juan Capistrano, Lt. Bob Rivas said. He would not, however, say what evidence was in the car that may have linked it to the shooting and Avery’s arrest.

Ehlow said police were tipped off to the location of the weapon believed to have been used in the attack.

A 20-gauge, pump-action shotgun was found buried in the back yard of a San Juan Capistrano residence. Police declined to give the address, saying that other suspects were still being sought in the investigation.

Ehlow said it was not likely that residents at the home where the shotgun was found were involved with the shooting.