Gang Bullets Kill Innocent Victims: Woman and Child

A 5-year-old boy and a 48-year-old woman met their deaths as innocent victims of gang violence in San Diego County over the weekend, authorities said.

The victims were fatally shot in separate attacks where gang bullets were intended for other targets, police said.

Slayings of innocent victims are increasingly common nationwide, authorities say, as well-armed gangs brazenly engage in gunfire on the nation’s streets.

The boy, Richard Anthony Cardenas of Cathedral City in Riverside County, was shot and killed Saturday evening by a bullet intended for his uncle, Eddie Cardenas, police said.

The uncle was buying pizza in downtown Escondido when the attack occurred, police said.

The boy was in the back seat of a car parked on South Escondido Avenue when the errant shot struck him at 8:23 p.m., according to police.

Moments before, according to Escondido police, two young men had demanded that the uncle identify his gang affiliation. That challenge triggered an exchange of insults that culminated when one of the assailants fired a shot at the uncle, police said.

The boy was rushed to Palomar Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead about an hour after the shooting.

Escondido police are following “several leads” in the case, authorities said. Other details were not available. The child apparently was visiting relatives.

In the other slaying, police said Maria Castaneda, 48, was shot and killed while inside her residence in the 4200 block of Epsilon Street in Southeast San Diego. She may have been asleep when she was shot, San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson said.

Numerous shots were fired into a vehicle and the residence on Epsilon Street about 12:05 a.m., according to police. The shots were believed to have been fired by members of a Latino gang who apparently were aiming at rival gang members, police said.