Gang Bullets Claim Another Toddler : Shooting: Gunfire from passing car kills boy, 2, who was pedaling brand-new tricycle toward his father.

Thomas Regalado III’s eyes lit up Tuesday when his parents bought him a new Playskool tricycle.

That night, as he peddled the trike in front of his El Sereno home, the 2-year-old toddler was slain in the kind of drive-by shooting that has become the nightmare of parents in gang-torn neighborhoods across Los Angeles.

“I don’t even know what to say,” the boy’s father, Thomas Regalado Jr., said Wednesday as he dabbed his bloodshot eyes after a sleepless night at County-USC Medical Center. Doctors spent eight hours operating on Thomas, but were unable to repair damage from the bullet that passed through the left side of his neck and came out his right cheek.

Police, who have no suspects, say the attack was gang-related. Regalado, 21, believes the target may have been an older brother who he said has gang affiliations. When the shooting broke out, Regalado was standing in front of the house with two of his brother’s friends.

“They just shoot without thinking,” said Guadalupe Regalado, the boy’s grandmother, as she stared at the tricycle, its yellow handlebars stained with blood. “What can a little 2-year-old child do? Nothing . Nada. “

Although the apparent truce between some factions of the Bloods and Crips has received much attention since the Los Angeles riots, warfare between Latino gangs has continued unabated. Thomas’ death was the 27th gang homicide so far this year in the Los Angeles Police Department’s Hollenbeck Division, a pace that will probably surpass last year’s record high of 35 gang killings in the Eastside community.

The shooting also added to the tally of children who have been caught in gang gunfire--bullets often intended for a parent or older family member. In April alone, three girls--ranging in age from 5 months to 3 years--were killed in separate gang attacks.

Regalado had hoped to someday move from the neighborhood and leave the gang rivalries that have troubled the area for generations. But on a June night, standing in front of the unpainted stucco house on Mercury Avenue where he and his nine siblings have lived since 1975, there also seemed little reason to worry about danger.

He had been talking with his brother’s friends for about five minutes, when little Thomas came pedaling down the driveway. “I told him, ‘No, mi hijo, don’t go,’ ” said the boy’s grandmother, who did not think the child should be on the street after 10 p.m. “But he said, ‘I’m going. I want to go to my papa.’ ”

Almost as soon as the boy crossed the front yard the gunfire began. Witnesses recall hearing eight or nine rounds fired.

Regalado, a burly man with close-cropped hair and a stubbly mustache, instinctively dove for his son and pulled him to the pavement. When the shooting was over, he cradled the boy in his arms and ran with him back to the house. Only then did he notice blood dripping from the child’s head onto his khaki pants.

“I haven’t done anything bad to anybody,” he said. “They just wanted to hit somebody, I guess.”

Police said the suspects were seen speeding away in a dark-colored, late-model compact car. At least two men were inside.

An ambulance was called and Regalado, along with the boy’s mother, Norma Suarez, followed it to the hospital. All night they waited, crying and praying, clutching a lavender box of tissue.

“The doctors told us they were doing the best they could,” said Regalado, still wearing the stained khakis. “But they also said it was bad, that he was in God’s hands.”