2-Year-Old Boy Shot in Apparent Gang Violence in Pasadena : Attack: The child is in critical condition. Police search for the driver of the car he was riding in.

A 2-year-old Monrovia boy was shot in the head Sunday night in an apparent gang-related ambush of the car his mother’s fiance was driving on a Pasadena street.

The child, Deshaun Duckworth, was in critical condition Monday at Huntington Memorial Hospital after surgery, Pasadena Police Lt. Van Anthony said. Hospital officials declined to elaborate on his condition.

Meanwhile, police investigators were searching for the fiance, Avalon Jackson, 30, of Pasadena, whom Anthony identified as a gang member. Jackson has not been located since he left the child with two women outside the hospital Sunday night, Anthony said. Investigators say they hope Jackson will be able to identify the assailants.

“We view him as a victim and are baffled by the fact that he hasn’t stepped forward,” Anthony said. “We’d really like to talk to him.”

The child’s mother, Tammy E. Johnson, 31, works as a private nurse. Jackson had picked up Deshaun from a baby-sitter’s house when the shooting occurred at Fair Oaks Avenue and Orange Grove Boulevard, Anthony said. Johnson declined to comment Monday.

The incident began when youths in a green 1970 Chevrolet sedan pulled alongside Jackson’s van and fired numerous rounds, Anthony said.

After the 10:40 p.m. shooting, Jackson’s vehicle spun out of control and smashed into a wall. Jackson took the injured child out of the van’s back seat, flagged down two women in a passing car and asked the women to take them to the hospital.

Outside the hospital, though, Jackson left the child with the women and slipped away, Anthony said. He said authorities do not know whether Jackson was injured.

Jackson’s brother, Walter Carson, 26, who was riding in the front passenger seat, was shot in the leg in the attack, Anthony said. He was treated at Huntington Memorial Hospital and released. Carson, who is also believed to be a gang member, told authorities he did not know the assailants.