Gunmen Kill 12-Year-Old, Wound Another

One 12-year-old boy was slain and another was critically wounded when gunmen in a passing car opened fire at a group of youths standing in front of a market on West Adams Boulevard, police said Tuesday.

Juan Jasso was pronounced dead Monday night on arrival at California Medical Center. His companion, who was not identified, was reported in stable condition Tuesday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Detective Roosevelt Joseph of the Los Angeles Police Department’s South Bureau homicide division said investigators were looking into reports that the shots might have been fired by members of a gang that had been feuding with another gang that hangs out at La Salle Market, a small, neighborhood store in the 1800 block of West Adams.

“But neither boy has been identified as a gang member,” Joseph said. “We really have no idea why this happened.”

He said none of the witnesses were able to give a clear description of the car or its occupants, and that there had been no arrests in the case Tuesday.

Francisco Ortega, 23, a clerk at the market, said through an interpreter that he was working behind the counter about 8:30 p.m. Monday when he heard “a lot of shots, maybe eight or 10 shots. . . .”

“I got right down on the floor,” Ortega said. “Then this kid (Juan) came staggering in the door. He had been shot in the chest. He got back here behind the counter. And that’s where he died.”

Ortega said the group on the sidewalk scattered, leaving the other boy, severely wounded, lying on the sidewalk as the car sped off. Several of the shots shattered a plate-glass window at the front of the market.