Violence Is No Stranger to Mother of Slain Youth, 17 : Police shooting: Her husband died in the El Salvador civil war 10 years ago. She says L.A. officers failed to use discretion in killing her unarmed son.

Two days after her 17-year-old unarmed son was shot and killed in a hail of police gunfire, Anastasia Aguilar tearfully recounted Friday the legacy of violence that has afflicted her family first in El Salvador and now in the streets of Los Angeles.

“(My children) were very small when their father was killed,” said Aguilar, a mother of four who moved to California 10 years ago. “I have been suffering and working hard to raise my family. Now they come and kill my son.”

A decade ago, Aguilar’s husband died in the cross-fire of her country’s civil war.

This week, her son was killed in the 2600 block of Hoover Street by two plainclothes officers, who said they believed the youth had a weapon. The officers, members of the LAPD’s anti-gang unit, fired 18 rounds from their semiautomatic pistols at Julio Moran.

Police later determined Moran was unarmed at the time of the shooting. The incident is still under investigation.

Aguilar, a 43-year-old housekeeper, lashed out at Los Angeles police, saying they should have used more discretion before firing their weapons at her son. She also maintained that he never before had any serious skirmishes with the law, and was not a member of a gang.

Gang activity prompted the Los Angeles police officers’ encounter with Moran, although investigators said they still had not determined if Moran was affiliated with a gang.

“He was not a member of any gang, never, never,” Aguilar said. “He was always here at home. They killed him as they would an animal. What I want is justice, even if they are police officers.”

The officers were on patrol when they saw two males cross the street and flash gang hand signals at Moran, who was riding in a car stopped for a red light, police said.

Moran jumped out of the car and, with his hands wrapped in a sweat shirt and extended directly in front of him, ran toward the two men, police said. Believing Moran was about to assault the two, the officers stopped their car nearby.

Police said the undercover officers identified themselves as police and ordered Moran to drop what they believed was a weapon. Moran, his arms still extended with the sweat shirt covering his hands, began moving toward the officers, who thought he was going to shoot them, police said.

Moran was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he died.

Seated in the living room of her rented South-Central Los Angeles home, Aguilar described the difficulties of raising four children on her modest income.

Aguilar said she always reminded her children of the importance of an education, battling with Julio’s reluctance to attend school. He complained of being beaten by gang members, she said.

“He would always come home all bruised and he would say ‘Look what they did to me,’ ” she said. “But I wanted him to be somebody. I didn’t want him to suffer like me.”

Aguilar described her son as a devoted soccer player. A small trophy he had won is perched on a mantle next to his U.S. citizenship certificate, which was granted in 1989. She learned of her son’s death from one of his friends, who appeared on her doorstep shortly after the shooting.

Family members said they would begin a collection to transport Julio’s body to El Salvador. Aguilar said she does not want to bury her son in his adopted country.

“We don’t want to leave him here,” she said.

POLICE SHOOTING: The mother of 17-year-old Julio Moran, above, who was slain by Los Angeles police, has been dogged by tragedy. The boy’s father was killed a decade ago in El Salvador’s civil war.