Friends, Relatives Mourn Stanton Youth Killed in Drive-By Shooting

Last Friday night, Johnny Casillas Jr., 16, ignored the desperate pleas of his best friend to stay away from a party that local gang members were rumored to be attending.

Hours later, weary from the late-night gathering at his cousin’s house, Johnny was brutally gunned down early Saturday morning as he walked along a dark street toward his grandmother’s home.

“I wanted to let him know that I didn’t think it was right for him to go,” 16-year-old Tony Perrera, Johnny’s buddy, said as he cried unabashedly during a Thursday morning funeral that drew more than 500 grieving friends and relatives.

“He was the greatest friend that I ever had,” Perrera said as he gripped a red carnation taken from atop Johnny’s gray casket. “There was just something special about that guy.”

Mourners packed St. Polycarp Catholic Church in Stanton to pay their final respects to Johnny, who was described as an outgoing, athletically inclined high school student who shunned drugs and violence and dreamed of going to college.

“What more can anybody say? He was a beautiful kid who cared about everybody,” said Rick Ricardo, Johnny’s uncle, after carrying his nephew’s coffin onto the grassy plot in Huntington Beach where Johnny was laid to rest.

Relatives and friends spoke quietly of Johnny’s love of football, fishing, baseball and other outdoor sports and his seemingly boundless energy.

“He was a real joker,” said classmate Christina Gomez, 16. “You could go up to him and talk to him and he’d always listen.”

But more frequently, conversation turned to the tragic circumstances surrounding the boy’s death.

Johnny, who was not a gang member, became the latest victim in a simmering rivalry between two Latino gangs--La Colonia of Anaheim and Big Stanton--friends and relatives said. Sheriff’s officials, who are still investigating the case, have not identified any suspects and have not confirmed that it was a gang-related killing.

As Johnny neared the corner of Oak Street and Central Avenue, just three blocks from his grandmother’s home in a modest Latino neighborhood, he was hit by a flurry of gunfire from an unidentified car.

“It’s crazy the way this happened,” Ricardo said. “It’s senseless.”

Tony Perrera and dozens of other teen-agers who attended Western High School with Johnny attended his funeral wearing white sweat shirts with the message “In Loving Memory of Johnny Casillas” embroidered on the back.

Other friends sported black T-shirts and headbands that displayed a similar message.

Friends and relatives said they believe the shooting was in retaliation for the April killing of Rosendo Ibarra, an Anaheim teen-ager who was shot to death while talking to his girlfriend at a Garden Grove pay phone.

Police have identified Ibarra as a member of La Colonia, while his family has denied his involvement. Three suspects, all from Stanton, were arrested in connection with Ibarra’s death.

Seconds before Johnny Casillas died, his cousin reportedly received a telephone call from someone who said that a Stanton youth was going to die. As the female spoke, voices in the background were heard chanting “La Colonia.”

Fear of revenge killings permeated the funeral.

Indeed, even the priest celebrating the funeral Mass touched on the need for a stop to any more violence.

“If we continue to hurt and despise one another and to seek vengeance, than we need to cry for ourselves, not for John,” said Father Joe Robillard. As he finished the sermon and lighted incense, an occasional muffled sob was heard.

Johnny’s cousin, Rob Vaca, echoed the priest’s comments in an informal eulogy at the cemetery. “We got to give it up, guys,” said Vaca, a former gang member who is now a lay preacher.

School friends said they believe Johnny had begun hanging out with local Stanton gang members since moving back into his old neighborhood to help care for his ailing grandmother. His father, John Casillas Sr., lives in Anaheim.

Perrera said that he got into a heated argument last week with Johnny because “he told me he wanted to join a certain kind of a group. I don’t blame him. You kind of idolize that stuff.”

Other friends also said they had called Johnny repeatedly to warn him to steer clear of any gang involvement. But they also said that Johnny had an unshakable desire to better himself and had confidence that he would not immerse himself in the gang lifestyle.

“He wanted to break out of the stereotype of Mexicans,” Perrera said. “He wanted to be a good example.”