A Shot That Mustn’t Go Unheard : Shooting by 10-year-old underscores need to address root problems of crime

Last Sunday, Manuela Garcia de la Rosa, a 25-year-old mother of three, became the 19th person to be shot to death this year in the city of San Diego.

The common ingredient is guns. But the difference between this shooting and the 18 earlier ones is that the person accused of shooting Garcia is a 10-year-old boy. The boy was on the roof of a nearby house, apparently taking turns with some teen-age pals firing a rifle. Garcia was in her cramped Barrio Logan trailer, putting her son to bed, when the bullet struck her.

Whether the 10-year-old intended to kill Garcia is unclear; his mother says no.

But what is clear is that this young boy’s life was a blueprint for trouble. All of the circumstances worked against him: poverty, a single-parent home, a neighborhood infested with gangs and violence. He saw his brother killed two years ago in a drive-by shooting.

His mother, a counselor and neighbors could see problems coming. But they were not able to halt them. He was thrown out of two schools, he fantasized about prison and practiced the graffiti signatures of gang members. He was picked up by police in Chicano Park in the middle of the night on several occasions. The night of the shooting he was hanging around with a 14-year-old boy who was under house arrest.

He was receiving counseling at Barrio Station and tutoring at a library. But his mother had six other children and concedes that she couldn’t keep him under control.

It is such environments that produce crime. And there are no easy antidotes to the poison of violence and poverty. Perhaps it would have made a difference if his mother had had a job, or if the boy had an active father, or if he hadn’t seen his brother gunned down.

It certainly would have made a difference if he hadn’t been able to get his hands on a loaded rifle.

How the boy and his friends got the rifle is unknown. It’s an important question. Under a state law that went into effect Jan. 1, if an adult left the loaded gun within easy reach of the children, the gun owner could be prosecuted and face up to three years in prison.

It’s cases like this that make such a law and other gun-control measures necessary. It’s cases like this that should put urgency into a gun-buyback program that San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen is planning.

But, most of all, it’s cases like this that remind us of the need to address the root problems of crime: So that families like Manuela Garcia and her husband and three children don’t have to be exposed to such violence, and so that 10-year-old boys don’t see their brothers gunned down and don’t have the opportunity to kill.

Mounting Toll of Tragedy

The first serious shooting of the year in the city of San Diego occurred just 50 minutes past midnight Jan. 1. Vong Deuane Phothisen, 16, was shot in the head in a gang-related incident, police said. He is still on life support.

Since then, 19 people have been killed by guns in the city as of Thursday. Here is the death toll:

Jan. 2: Rafael Espinola, 22, died of wounds he received New Year’s Day.

Jan. 24: Michael Konz, 25, shot following a grievance hearing at General Dynamics.

Jan. 25: Mazood Kaizana, 44, killed in a robbery attempt.

Jan. 25: Tory Kelsey, 19, accidentally killed himself.

Jan. 30: Steven Riker, 32, shot in a robbery attempt.

Feb. 2: Sisouphanh Khamphila, 18, and Chang Lee, 16, found dead on the lawn of Morse High School.

Feb. 3: Frank Foust, 35, motive unknown.

Feb. 5: Jairo Valencia, 22, and Javier Avalos, 33, in separate incidents.

Feb. 15: Lamont Hoke, 22.

Feb. 16: Ricardo Guerra, 33.

Feb. 19: Loan Nguyen, 17 and Phong Tran, 19, in a murder-suicide.

Feb. 23: Silverio Arroyo, 43.

Feb. 24: Wyvonne Conner, 49, in a drug-related incident.

Feb. 26: Jose Aguilar, 14, in a possible gang-related incident.

Feb. 27: Mauricio Torres, 23.

March 8: Manuela Garcia de la Rosa, 25.