GANG WATCH : Latest Victim

Let us all hope--and, where appropriate, pray--for the return to health of one Jonathon Fabian, an unarmed resident of the city of Lynwood in Los Angeles County.

He is currently in a hospital bed at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, struggling against critical stomach wounds sustained in a cold-blooded gang shooting.

Jonathon Fabian was not armed when he was surrounded by three teen-age boys and plugged point blank by one of the gang members carrying a handgun. They then escaped and are now the target of a police manhunt.

Jonathon Fabian is of course not the first victim of youth gang violence in 1990: As of Wednesday morning there had been 116 gang-related murders in unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County this year alone (112 in all of last year).

And of course he surely won’t be the last. Gang violence in some parts of Southern California is out of control, and it is probably due to the geographical location of the shootings--generally not in the higher-income areas--that more isn’t being done about the problem. Yes, if these crimes were occurring in places like Brentwood rather than Lynwood, more would be done, no question.

Besides being unarmed, Jonathon was not a known member of any gang. He had no criminal record and was not thought to be in any way a problem to the community. Nevertheless, police apparently believe that he was deliberately, not accidently, shot, and are deeply puzzled by the incident.

Victim Jonathon Fabian, you see, is 2.