3-Year-Old Shot in Head Upgraded to Fair Condition

Rogelio Morales has been fighting for his life at Childrens Hospital since he was shot in the head four days ago during a gunfight between rival gang members, authorities said Monday.

The 3-year-old, who suffered permanent damage to both sides of his brain, was upgraded to fair condition after being listed as critical after the shooting Friday.

“He’s doing a lot better than I thought,” said neurosurgeon Corey Raffel, who said he had not expected the boy to survive. “He has not regained consciousness. He is close to being awake, but he’s not yet.”

Doctors removed bone fragments from Rogelio’s brain Monday afternoon, but they will not be able to extract the bullet that is lodged “right in the middle of his brain,” Raffel said.

The boy has been in intensive care since Friday and remains in a coma, Raffel said.

At the hospital Monday afternoon, the boy’s mother, 26-year-old Ana Morales, vowed not to give up hope.

“The most important thing is that he is alive . . . and I am not going to lose hope,” said Morales, who emigrated from Guatemala with her husband and son last November. “I’m more sure now that my boy is going to live.”

Rogelio was in his mother’s arms Friday about 1 p.m. as she was using a pay phone at 7th Street and Burlington Avenue near MacArthur Park when rival gang members ran down both sides of 7th Street shooting at each other, said Detective Terry Wessel of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division.

At least four of the suspects had guns, and six to 12 shots were fired across the street. One bullet from a .38-caliber revolver pierced Rogelio’s right temple, Wessel said.

“I saw my baby pass his hand by his head and a lot of blood,” said Morales, wiping her hand over the right side of her head. “I started screaming into the phone, ‘My baby is shot!’ ”

A passerby took Rogelio from her arms and ran across the street to a fire station. “That saved the life of my baby,” Morales said.

Paramedics at the fire station examined the boy and took him to Childrens Hospital, police said.

Police said they believe David Enriquez, 22, fired the gun that injured the boy. Enriquez was among seven men and two 14-year-old boys arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Wessel said. The suspects are members of two neighborhood gangs vying for control of the strip of 7th Street where the shooting occurred, Wessel said.

Enriquez, along with Victor Contreras, 18; Fernando Pastora, 22; David Sillas, 19; Cesar Gonzalez, 18; Roman Guerrero, 18, and Jesus Leo, 18, were in custody at the LAPD’s Parker Center jail. The two minors, whose names were not released, were being held at Eastlake Juvenile Hall.

“Only one person fired the shot,” said Wessel. “But these two opposing groups get together, they have a verbal confrontation, several members pull out guns and start shooting at one another. They are all equally responsible.”

Morales said she and her husband had come to Los Angeles in November partly to seek medical advice about Rogelio, who at age 3, still could not walk and talk properly.

Although the boy has suffered permanent brain damage, doctors could not specify how his mental or physical abilities would be affected.