3 Arrested in Shooting of Toddler

Three teen-agers were arrested Friday in connection with the shooting of a 2-year-old Lynwood boy, and Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigators said they no longer suspect the toddler was shot intentionally but rather believe he was caught in a gang cross-fire.

Two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old were arrested early in the morning at their homes in Lynwood and Los Angeles, said Sheriff’s Detective Craig Ditsch. All three were being held in county Juvenile Hall on suspicion of attempted murder.

Meanwhile, little Jonathon Fabian was released Friday afternoon from Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center, where he had spent three days recovering from a gunshot wound to the midsection, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Initially, investigators thought the boy might have been a deliberate target--a scenario that prompted an anguished community reaction. But deputies said Friday that their investigation had made clear the child had been an innocent bystander.

“Each individual has indicated to us his involvement in the particular crime,” Ditsch said at a press conference, where he appeared with the mayor of Lynwood and other city officials. “They showed a great deal of remorse. . . . They had no idea this child was anywhere near their target, their aim or their gunfire. They were going after rival gang members.”

Deputies said the three juveniles--their names were not released--were walking down Muriel Drive shortly before 7 p.m. Tuesday when a vehicle drove past, heading east on Platt Avenue.

“Passengers in that car threw rival gang signs out the window (and) yelled gang slogans,” Ditsch said. Two of the suspects, armed with .38-caliber handguns, then fired two shots each, apparently missing the other gang members but striking the child, he said.

The shooting outraged community leaders and residents in the working-class neighborhood, where gang violence has intensified in the last year.

The county Board of Supervisors offered a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible. Sheriff’s officials said it was their understanding that no one qualifies for the reward.

Lynwood Mayor Robert Henning said Friday that the people in that community south of Los Angeles, and other urban sectors hit hard by gang violence, must stand up and take back their neighborhoods from “hoodlums.”

“We’re tired of it,” said Henning, adding that more state and federal funding has to be poured into communities like Lynwood, where recreational amenities for children are few. “We’re not about to lay down and let these young hoodlums start shooting our children.”

Deputies had few leads when they began their investigation. Two witnesses, including the boy’s father, had said that there was no other possible target in the boy’s vicinity, that the shots were fired at close range and that three suspects were only about 25 feet from the youngster when they were spotted running away.

Ditsch said Friday that the boy’s father probably did not see the car because after the shooting “he had tunnel vision on his little boy, who he knew was hurt.”

A different scenario emerged late Thursday and Friday as new witnesses and suspects were interviewed. Although Ditsch declined to declare that the suspects had confessed outright, the information he obtained was “as close to a confession as I’ve ever heard.”

The mother of one of the suspects, in an interview with The Times, tearfully insisted Friday that although her son was involved in the incident--and is a gang member--”he didn’t shoot the child.”

She said, referring to the rival gang members in the car: “It was the other side that shot him.”

The two gangs, one black, one Latino, have been warring for years, she said, and young Jonathon “got caught in the cross-fire. That’s what it was.”

The version presented by the woman, who lives in Lynwood, was contradicted somewhat by Ditsch. He said two of the suspects admitted firing all of the shots. However, he added, it did appear that the woman’s son--the only suspect arrested in Lynwood--was unarmed.

Asked why the youth was booked on a charge of attempted murder, Ditsch said: “It’s such a tough case we wanted to follow through on our part and leave it up to the district attorney’s office to decide what to prosecute on.” A district attorney’s spokeswoman said the office’s Anti-Gang Unit will decide Monday what charges to press.