Family, Friends Shocked by Teen’s Violent Death

Friends and family of 17-year-old Ryan Mones expressed disbelief Monday that the Valley Vista High School student killed himself rather than face capture after a gun battle with a deputy sheriff Sunday.

“He was the nicest guy. He was always smiling and giving hugs,” said Natasha Petakoff, 20, who worked with Mones in a men’s shop in Westminster Mall.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department said Deputy Derek Franklin had interrupted four heavily armed men while they were planning a robbery in a wildlife sanctuary parking lot near Bolsa Chica State Beach.

As the deputy tried to make a routine traffic check of their parked car at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday, the occupants opened fire with two automatic assault rifles and three semiautomatic handguns, firing up to 100 rounds, a sheriff’s spokesman said. Franklin suffered minor injuries.

The suspects fled and later abandoned their car about a mile west of the lot. More than 40 officers, including a SWAT team and two police helicopters, converged on the Harbor Pacific Condominiums in Huntington Beach where the suspects had fled.

At about 2 a.m. Sunday, they found Mones’ body in a carport in the complex on Blue Water Lane near 5th Street. He had died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Lt. Dick Olson said.

A report by the coroner’s office concluded that Mones had stuck a gun under his chin and pulled the trigger after being trapped by police.

One bystander walked out of his home in the complex and was shot twice by a man with a rifle. The victim, Roland Britton, 45, was in fair condition at a Long Beach hospital with gunshot wounds to his thigh and buttocks.

One suspect was taken into custody in the condominiums and another at a nearby restaurant on Warner Avenue. The final suspect was arrested at his Garden Grove home Sunday morning without incident.

The two adult suspects, Keith Gonzalez, 19, and Travis Claude 19, will be arraigned today at the Municipal Court in Westminster, Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Tanazaki said. Officials refused to release information regarding the 17-year-old juvenile.

At the store where Mones worked, co-worker Peter Rasoe, 20, said he was just about to call Mones Monday morning when a friend arrived at the store with the news that Mones had killed himself.

“I was shocked. It’s shocking to know that he is gone and we won’t be able to see him again,” Rasoe said. “We used to hang out in the mall together after work.” Rasoe said he was sure that Mones was not involved with gangs.

“I once asked him if he was into gangs or violence or any of those things. He said it was stupid to be involved with gangs,” Rasoe said.

“Maybe he couldn’t back down once he got involved with these guys (the other shooting suspects). Maybe he got involved with the wrong people,” Rasoe said.

Alberto Mones, 43, Ryan’s father, said he “was a very loving kid. He was a very good boy. Everybody loves him.”

“Ryan was always helpful. He used to go to church and he would visit his grandmother who is sick,” Mones said sobbing. “We are all trying to be strong without our son.

“I think he started hanging out with the wrong crowd, because he wasn’t a violent person. He was getting good grades, he got a job at the mall and he had a nice girlfriend. He had been going to church a lot.”