Boy, 5, Shoots Brother, Friend : Freak Anaheim Accident Occurs While Children Are Alone

A 5-year-old boy shot and wounded his older brother and a playmate with a single bullet Wednesday in a freak accident that happened while the boys were left unattended, police said.

Police said the shooting occurred about 2:30 p.m. in a quiet apartment complex on the 600 block of West Broadway as Katherine McGuire’s sons were playing with a neighbor boy.

Michelle Sinescu, 22, who lives next door, said she was watching television when she heard a single gunshot. She ran out the door and saw McGuire’s youngest son standing in the open doorway of his apartment, facing outdoors, holding a black .38-caliber handgun in his right hand.

“He looked at me and said, ‘Please help us,’ ” Sinescu said. “At first, I thought he was going to shoot me. Then, I saw his brother lying on the carpet inside with blood all over, and he said, ‘Help me.’ I realized they were playing with a gun and the little one shot him.”

Sinescu said she darted into the McGuires’ apartment, where Edgar McGuire, 11, was on the floor, bleeding from a bullet wound to the chest, and Oscar Flores, 10, a boy from another building in the complex, was sitting on a couch with a bullet lodged in his right shoulder.

Both boys were taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where Oscar was in serious but stable condition Wednesday evening, said hospital spokeswoman Betty Chrisco. Edgar’s condition was not released at the request of his mother.

Katherine McGuire and Oscar’s parents, Margarita and Hector Flores, declined to be interviewed.

Wednesday’s shooting was the latest in a series non-gang-related incidents involving youths and guns. Since September, there have been at least five other shootings, four of them fatal.

Anaheim Police Sgt. Chet Barry said the latest incident occurred after the two older boys found the handgun in a box in McGuire’s bedroom.

“They had evidently taken the gun out, looked it over, laid it down and left the apartment for a very short period of time,” Barry said. “When they came back, lo and behold, there stands the 5-year-old in the living room, and he has the gun in his hand.”

The older boys, one standing behind the other, screamed at the 5-year-old to put the gun down, but “that may have startled or confused him, and in the process of maneuvering it, he set it off,” Barry said.

Barry said there is “no doubt” the shooting was an accident. The 5-year-old, whose name was withheld, was taken into protective custody, interviewed by police and turned over to Orangewood Children’s Home for counseling, Barry said. He said police are continuing their investigation.

Sinescu said she had rarely seen McGuire, who is deaf, since she and her sons moved into the complex from Canoga Park on July 1. But whenever she saw the boys, they appeared to be unsupervised, Sinescu said.

“It looked to me like those kids were living there by themselves,” Sinescu said.

Debbie Devine, manager of the Summerhill Plaza apartment complex, said McGuire, who communicates with her through written notes, “seems very nice.” But Devine said she rarely sees her. She said McGuire does not work and subsists on government aid.

“I don’t know where she goes,” Devine said. “Sometimes she swims with her boys in the pool here around 5 in the evening. The neighbors say those kids are real rambunctious, though. They’re always playing music loud, late at night.”

Devine said McGuire arrive home about half an hour after the shooting. Once the boys were on their way to the hospital, a neighbor broke the news of the shooting to Margarita Flores, Devine said.

“She was hysterical,” Devine said. “All she could say was, ‘Oh my God, oh my God.’ ”

Devine said Oscar is well-known and liked throughout the complex.

“He’s a wonderful little boy,” Devine said. “He’s probably the nicest boy who lives here.”

Neighbors described the salmon-colored, 162-unit complex as quiet, populated mostly by singles and couples who work. There are about a dozen small children in the complex.

“This kind of thing has never happened before,” Devine said. “It’s unbelievable.”