Girl Killed in Fight Over Balloons : Violence: Neighbor is held. Dispute and shooting followed water play among the youths.

A 17-year-old Eastside Los Angeles girl was shot to death Wednesday by her next-door neighbor after a dispute over a water balloon fight between her younger brother and other neighborhood children, authorities said.

Jessica Valadez died Wednesday night at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center after suffering a bullet wound to the head.

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said the water balloon fight prompted Valadez and her mother, Concepcion, 42, to get into an argument with next-door neighbor Maria Montes, 38. The dispute turned violent when Jorge Montes, Maria’s husband, drove up to his house in the 200 block of North Eastman Avenue and became involved in the argument, Valadez family members said.

As neighbors watched in horror, Jorge Montes pulled out a semiautomatic pistol and used it to beat Valadez and her mother, a family member said. As he struck Jessica in the head, the gun discharged, detectives said. She was rushed to the hospital, where she died at 10:48 p.m. Wednesday.

Montes was arrested. He was being held without bail Thursday at the East Los Angeles sheriff’s station.

Relatives and friends gathered outside the girl’s home Thursday to talk about the tragedy, with some saying the dispute could have been resolved with words instead of violence.

“It was senseless,” said Kate Caire, the grandmother of Valadez’s 14-year-old brother, Stevie. “It should have been handled peacefully without violence by two mothers who care about their children.”

The dispute, she said, centered on Stevie, who was one of a group of neighborhood children throwing water-filled balloons at each other.

“She was trying to defend her younger brother,” Caire said. “She told (Maria Montes) not to call her brother names.”

Rick Luna, a family friend from Hacienda Heights, said he could not understand how such a tragedy could stem from childish play.

“It escalated much too quickly,” he said. “Sometimes people act like animals and don’t stop to think about the consequences. You don’t break out a gun and start shooting over something like this.”

Luna said Jessica would have been a senior year this year at Garfield High School.

“She had a bright future,” Caire said. “She was very likable, had dozens of friends and she was warm and friendly.”

Residents along the street said the shooting is symptomatic of the violence that has permeated every area of life.

“We try to keep to ourselves,” said one mother in the neighborhood. “We keep to our side of the fence. That doesn’t mean we live like hermits, we talk to our neighbors. But you can never tell what is going to happen.”