Marchers Hold Candlelight Vigil for Boy Killed by Gang Member’s Gun

They lighted the candles for Adrian Barajas well before sunset, and some were still glowing long after dark. They began with not more than 60 marchers, but their numbers grew to nearly 200 by the time his memorial was over at Dana Strand Village in Wilmington.

And after the marchers had finished walking through the housing project where Adrian died, the mother of the shy 10-year-old guessed that he would have been honored by the crowd and its cause.

“If he was going to make a ruckus,” Odette Fortier said, managing a smile, “he’d want it to be for a good reason.”

The reason, for Fortier and the others, was fighting gang violence.

Three weeks ago, the young boy who loved art and music and hated gangs and violence was playing at his cousin’s apartment at the Dana Strand housing project. There, on a quiet Saturday afternoon, the two boys found a gun belonging to his cousin’s older brother, a gang member. As the boys passed the .357-magnum back and forth, it went off, killing Adrian.

Though his death was officially considered an accident by police, Adrian’s family and friends, gang specialists and community activists blame it on the gang violence that has become epidemic in parts of Wilmington.

At Dana Strand and elsewhere, drive-by shootings have been, at times, almost a daily occurrence. And, even when the shooting stops, many in the community merely hold their breath, convinced that their reprieve from the killing will not last long.

But Adrian’s death, as evidenced by Friday night’s march, has galvanized many in the community to confront the violence, which too often claims innocent lives.

The march, which lasted more than an hour, was sponsored by the Los Angeles City Housing Authority and Mothers Against Gangs Support Services, a Wilmington-based group whose members have children in gangs or who have lost children in gang violence. In addition, Los Angeles police, the Community Youth Gang Services Project, the Community Reclamation Project and others supported the march, representing what several participants said was an unprecedented coalition of agencies and community activists.

“When I heard what had happened to Adrian, I felt so helpless. I didn’t want the boy to die in vain,” said Gil Contreras, the housing authority’s gang intervention coordinator credited with the idea behind the march.

“I wanted us to hopefully learn something. To bring people together. To say, ‘This is enough. Now it’s time to start the healing,’ ” he said.

The march began with tributes to Adrian and prayers for the community.

“I loved my son and I hope that this and anything else anyone can do will stop the violence and the anger and the things that are devastating our community,” Adrian’s mother tearfully told the marchers, most of whom never knew her son.

“If my loss serves a purpose to save only one child, I will be consoled,” she said.

“Lord, use him as an example of all the violence,” said the Rev. Gale Wigginton, pastor of Mountain Movers Church in Carson.

“We’re tired of seeing our children lost,” Wigginton said. “We’re tired of seeing them die. And we’re going to do something about it because little things can become big things.”

As the marchers set out along Hawaiian Avenue toward C Street, their numbers began to grow. While most residents of Dana Strand and the surrounding neighborhood looked on, many joined the vigil. So did a few gang members, according to gang counselors who say the youths have been quietly mourning the tragedy.

“They’ve been saying it was an accident and they’re sorry it happened, but they don’t express themselves out loud too much,” said Art Zepeda, a crisis intervention worker with Community Youth Gang Services.

Added Joe Alarcon, field supervisor for the gang prevention program: “It’s a real sad situation, but he died because of the guns . . . and when this happens, we try to rub it in.”

As the marchers moved toward the center of Dana Strand, groups of young children, drawn by the crowd and the candles, asked why the people were there.

“What happened?” one young boy asked another youngster holding a candle.

“Someone died,” the young marcher said. “This is like a parade. Like a quiet parade.”

Among the youngsters in the crowd were two friends of Adrian, who lived just a few blocks away from Dana Strand.

“He was my best, best friend,” said Arturo Martinez, 13, who lived a few doors down from Adrian and remembered how the two of them would play.

“I miss him,” said another young friend, Sandra Ochoa, 7. “He played kick ball with us . . . and my mom used to sometimes make him enchiladas. He loved enchiladas.”

When the hourlong march was over, the crowd met again in a parking lot across from Dana Strand. There, Adrian’s mother once again thanked the marchers. Then she thought about her son.

“I was picturing him up in heaven,” she said, “smiling and being warm.”

In the next week or so, another tribute will be held for Adrian at Hawaiian Avenue Elementary School in Wilmington. There, on a corner of the playground, his classmates will plant a tree.