Gang Bullet Paralyzes Youth and His Quest for a Lawman’s Career

When he applied to be a volunteer with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Martin Hernandez said this about gangs: “I dislike the gangs. I would like to do something about it so they can find out that’s not the only life you could live, that there’s a better lifestyle.”

Now, the 18-year-old Sheriff’s Explorer and aspiring baseball player and police officer lies in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the waist down by a bullet fired by a suspected gang member.

On Friday, Hernandez, of Inglewood, was standing with a group of friends outside a party in Hawthorne when shots rang out.

A bullet pierced Hernandez’s chest, just missed his heart and lodged in his spine. Another 18-year-old was hit in the leg and is recovering.

“They were random victims,” said Hawthorne Police Chief Steve Port, adding that neither Hernandez nor his friends were gang members. Police believe the suspects shot at someone else in the crowd, but they would not elaborate. They said witnesses provided information that leads them to believe the suspects are gang members.

The irony of Hernandez being gunned down by the gang violence he abhorred was not lost on his friends and family members.

“He was caught in the violence and it just shows it can happen to anybody, even someone who wanted to be a police officer,” said Alberto Hernandez, 25, Martin’s older brother.

The shooting has further demoralized some police officers, who witness the impact of violence day in and day out.

“I have been a cop for 30 years and I have spent a lot of time on homicide and I can tell you this is a sad one,” said Capt. Jack Scully, commander of the Lennox sheriff’s station, where Hernandez was an Explorer.

Doctors are uncertain if Hernandez will be able to walk again. The news has shattered family members, who watched him work hard at baseball in hopes it could be a ticket to his higher education.

Hernandez, a B student who took advanced classes, had made contact with several colleges about obtaining a baseball scholarship, Alberto Hernandez said, but he had not heard anything yet.

A senior at Leuzinger High School, he played varsity baseball his freshman year. He did not play last year because of a disagreement with the coach, but he planned to return to the varsity squad for the upcoming season, said Steve Carnes, the school’s athletic administrator.

The shooting was especially painful for Hernandez’s parents, Antonio and Maria, who have coped with the deaths of five children from natural causes.

Now six remain. Martin was the last of their children born in Mexico before Antonio Hernandez left in 1977 to seek a better life.

He sent money back to his family until they rejoined him four years later in Inglewood.

“We are most interested in if he can walk again,” Antonio Hernandez said softly in an interview. “He had so much ability and now he can’t walk. It is hard on us.”

The family also is worried that they may not have the money to pay medical bills.

The Sheriff’s Relief Foundation is accepting donations on the family’s behalf. Its address is 11515 S. Colima Road, Whittier, Calif. 90604.