5-Year-Old Boy Struck in Head by Apparent Random Gunfire

A 5-year-old Carson boy suffering from a blood disorder was in critical condition Thursday after he was struck in the head by a bullet apparently fired at random into the sky.

Adrian Benitez, a kindergarten student at Broad Avenue School in Wilmington, was out for a walk with his mother, 2-year-old brother and a cousin near his Island Avenue home about 8 p.m. Wednesday when he was struck.

The boy’s mother, Martha, said she had just finished scolding him for running toward home when he stopped, put his hands to his head, called out to her and fell to the ground.

Adrian’s father, Francisco, rushed him to Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Harbor City, where doctors put him on life-support systems.

Family members said doctors believed late last year that Adrian had leukemia. Tests revealed a serious blood disorder that has not been diagnosed.

Because of the illness, Adrian was not allowed to play or exert himself, relatives said. Wednesday night’s walk with his mother was his first outside activity in several days, they said.

Sheriff’s investigators believe that the bullet that struck him may have been fired into the air at random by someone as far as two miles away.

Investigators urged anyone who heard shots within a two-mile radius of 246th Place and Island Avenue between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. Wednesday to call Bob Tauson or Bill Neumann at the sheriff’s homicide bureau, (213) 974-4341.