Gang Retaliation Badly Burns 3 Sleeping Girls

Three girls were critically injured as they slept Thursday morning when a firebomb apparently meant as gang retaliation for someone else exploded in their Long Beach bedroom, authorities said.

Police believe that the fire on Gale Avenue was intended for a 21-year-old man who recently moved from the house and is under investigation in a March drive-by shooting that killed a 15-year-old gang member.

It was the second time in a week that Long Beach children were victimized by violence that missed its mark. On June 11, 4-year-old Jermaine Johnson was shot to death in his bed after stray bullets pierced the wall of his parent’s apartment.

All three girls, ages 11, 14 and 16, suffered second- and third-degree burns over 40% to 60% of their bodies and are in critical condition, said Long Beach Memorial Medical Center officials.

All three girls are on life-support systems, said Ron Yukelson, hospital spokesman. They are conscious but are unable to speak to their parents, who walk from one room to the next in sanitary hospital garb, trying not to cry.

The girls had recently moved into the small house on Gale Avenue with their parents and three brothers, said Salvadore Hernandez, the girls’ father. There were no warnings and no signs of trouble before someone broke a window and set the girls’ bedroom on fire just before 4 a.m., he said.

“We believe (the Hernandezes) are a completely innocent family; the victims of mistaken gang retaliation,” Police Sgt. Linda Fiero said. There are no suspects, she said.

Hernandez, 41, has been working as a machinist for 10 years, saving money to bring his family here from Nayarit, Mexico. Last month, he finally won visas for his wife and six children and on May 27, they moved into the neatly trimmed house next to the Long Beach Freeway.

Speaking in halting English, Hernandez said he woke suddenly Thursday when he heard glass breaking and his daughters screaming. He ran to the bedroom to find it engulfed in flames.

“They were all sleeping soundly and the fire was all over them when they woke up,” Long Beach Fire Department spokesman Bob Moll said. “(Hernandez) opened the door to get them out and the fire just shot out over his head.”

Hernandez pulled his daughters from the room, suffering first-degree burns and cutting his feet on the glass.

According to police, the attack was almost certainly meant for a 21-year-old man who moved from the house less than three months ago. The former tenant had been arrested in the March 6 drive-by shooting of Robert Arroyo, 15, who was killed as he rode his bike with friends near Spring Street and Easy Avenue. Witnesses identified the 21-year-old man’s car as being the one from which shots were fired, but none could positively say he did the shooting. He was released because of a lack of evidence, Detective Roy Hamand said.

About three weeks after Arroyo was shot in the back, someone threw a Molotov cocktail at the home of one of Arroyo’s companions, causing damage to the front porch. Arroyo and his friend were members of a street gang, Hamand said, and the case is under investigation. The 21-year-old is still considered a suspect, but police do not believe that he is a gang member, Hamand said.

“We’re still trying to piece this together,” Hamand said.

The suspect’s father owns the Gale Avenue house and lived there until March, when he moved his family out and Hernandez moved in, Hernandez said. He described the owner as a close family friend.

Arson investigators did not say what caused the fire, except to say that flammable liquid was used.

“There were vapors (from the explosive liquid) in the air that ignited when the fire started, so the girls all breathed in this super-heated air,” Moll said. “That’s going to create a lot of problems for them.”

The fire was extinguished within five minutes and caused about $20,000 damage.

Two financial aid funds are being established for the Hernandez family through the Mexican Consulate, and through family friends Tolentino and Esmelda Banda, 1729 Eudora Ave., Wilmington, Calif. 90744.