4-Year-Old Gunshot Victim’s Condition Improves; Father Sought

A 4-year-old girl, whose father reportedly shot her in the head after a night of drinking, was in stable condition Monday with brain damage but was able to recognize people, her mother said.

The father, Bartolo Quintana, remains at large. His wife said Monday that she has not seen him since the shooting but expects him to surrender to police soon.

Lt. Bob Helton said Quintana will be booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and negligent handling of a firearm.

Maria Felix Quintana, 34, said Monday that her husband had left his McFadden Avenue apartment about 8:30 p.m. Friday. She and the couple’s two daughters were asleep in the same bed when he returned about 1 a.m.

While unloading a gun, he accidentally shot 4-year-old Flerida in the forehead, Helton said.

Flerida underwent surgery on Saturday at UCI Medical Center in Orange to remove bullet fragments from the left side of her forehead.

Quintana said doctors told her that it would be three months before they know whether Flerida’s vision will be affected and a year before they know whether she will suffer seizures, strokes or fainting as a result of the shooting.

Quintana said that after the shooting she and her brothers, upset and scared, asked her husband to leave.

“He did not want to go,” she said, but she wanted to “get rid of him” because she feared that he had killed their daughter.