Family’s Pride Turns to Tears After Young Witness Is Slain

Eduardo Samaniego, a clean-cut Little Leaguer, was so shy he could not ask a waitress for ketchup, family members recalled Thursday.

But in February, the 14-year-old Pomona boy bravely took the witness stand to testify against two men suspected of killing a boy in a gang-related shooting in front of the Samaniego family’s home. Although 15 other young people were in the street when the shooting happened, only Eduardo and two others testified at the preliminary hearing.

On Monday, only days before the murder trial was to begin in Pomona Superior Court, Eduardo was summoned from his home and fatally shot in an alley just blocks away. His shaken parents believe gang members caught up with their son and killed him to stop him from testifying again.

“I felt it was right for him to testify,” said Eduardo’s mother, Maria Elena Samaniego. “But I didn’t realize he was going to be in danger.”

Police say they cannot be sure of a motive and have no suspects. Nevertheless, Eduardo’s father, Ricardo, said he will move his family from their home of 13 years after his son is buried Monday.

“Everyone said this was not a place to live, but nothing was happening to us, until this,” Ricardo Samaniego said Thursday, surrounded by grieving family members and friends gathered at the home on Vassar Street. “But now, I’m scared, so I’ve got to move out.”

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Police and prosecutors commonly attempt to persuade reluctant crime witnesses to testify, assuring them that those who speak out are rarely victims of revenge.

“In my 25 years of police experience, I’m aware of only a couple of times a person was shot, or injured, or had some property damaged because of testimony,” Pomona Police Sgt. Dale La Fleur said.

La Fleur said Pomona police do not have the resources to provide 24-hour protection to guarantee witnesses’ safety. Eduardo’s death could be coincidental, resulting from a robbery, or from being in the wrong place at the wrong time, he said.

Family and friends say Eduardo had no enemies.

“You’d look into his eyes and they were just clear,” said Father Charles Ramirez of Our Lady of the Assumption Roman Catholic Church. “This kid was very spiritual. There was no guile in his eyes.”

The third of four children, Eduardo was a standout pitcher and catcher for his Little League team, the Red Sox. An avid fan, he collected baseball cards and believed that someday he would be a major league ballplayer. He signed autographs for friends and urged them to safeguard the signature for its future value, family members said.

But the boy was not a braggart, Ramirez said. Instead, the shy youth had to be coaxed to speak up when he began playing basketball at the church. He had just completed the first year of the two-year process for confirmation in the church, the priest said.

That he would be a witness to a gang shooting had nothing to do with his character, but everything to do with the neighborhood in which he lived, Ramirez said.

On Vassar Street, drug dealers sell rock cocaine and gang members cruise in their cars. But for Ricardo Samaniego, a maintenance worker, moving his wife and children there from a cramped Montebello apartment was a step up.

Then, last Nov. 10, while about 15 youths tossed a football around on the street in front of the Samaniego home, two youths, driving slowly in a car, opened fire on Luis Lopez, 15, of Pomona, killing him.

Bullets pierced the Samaniego home, shattered a front bedroom window, tore through the living room wall and smashed a plate-glass door leading to a back patio.

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Eduardo made his parents proud when he testified in February against Joey Philip Salazar, 19, and Arthur Melendrez, 22, gang members who have been charged with murder in the shooting. Police later said the boy spoke clearly and without fear, his father said.

As the trial date neared, the family did not fear for the boy’s safety because of assurances given by police, Ricardo Samaniego said. But at 10:30 a.m. Monday, someone came to the door and asked for Eduardo, who left voluntarily.

An hour later, shots were heard in the 2100 block of North Towne Avenue. Residents found Eduardo bleeding from the neck. He died Tuesday at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. To help pay for funeral expenses, friends of the family have established the Eduardo Samaniego Trust Fund at the Bank of America, 339 Yale Ave., Claremont.

Since the shooting, the other two witnesses are too scared to testify, and one boy “is vomiting in fear,” Ramirez said. The trial is scheduled to start today. Deputy Dist. Atty. Dennis Ferris said the trial could be delayed because “we may not be able to find the witnesses.”

Ricardo Samaniego says he will never allow his two surviving sons and teen-age daughter to testify in court.

“Before this happened, I believed in police protection and in the police, deep in my heart,” he said. “But when this happened, everything collapsed.”