Gang Treaty Sought After Jesuit Novice Is Shot

A Jesuit novice shot in the head this week in a Boyle Heights attack on gang members was not seriously injured and may return to parish work next week, authorities said Friday.

Meantime, leaders of the Dolores Mission Catholic Church, where the novice was posted, were talking to youths and others in an effort to avoid the kind of pay-back strike that has become common in the neighborhood east of the Los Angeles River.

“We’re trying to make a special effort for a treaty,” said Father Jerry Cowhig, associate pastor of a parish known for its efforts to reach out to gangs. “We’re really hoping that this can be a wake-up call for all of us, a chance to turn a near-disaster into something positive.”

Tien Nguyen, 22, a native of Vietnam who is serving part of his first-year training for the Jesuit community at the mission, was saved from greater injury because the bullet that struck him was slowed by the back window and the headrest of the van he was driving, police said. The bullet did not penetrate Nguyen’s skull.

“He could have been a lot more seriously wounded,” said Detective Jack Forsman of the Hollenbeck Division.

Authorities and church leaders said Nguyen was not the intended victim of the shooting but was caught in gunfire aimed at gang members by their rivals.

“We’re all very sure that no one would have fired at this van if they knew it was a church vehicle,” said Cowhig, noting that there is a high Catholic population in the predominantly Latino parish. “It would have just been taboo. People respect the church here.”

The novice was picking up four young men at the corner of 4th Street and Soto, near Roosevelt High School, when at least two shots were fired Wednesday about 1 p.m., authorities said. The youths had requested a lift back to the mission, less than a mile away, because it was unsafe for them to walk, Cowhig said.

As the gunfire erupted, police said, the youths scurried toward the van for cover. No one else was hit. Authorities were pursuing several leads in the case but named no suspects.

The shooting has shaken the mission’s extensive social service apparatus and prompted the parish to examine how to reduce hazards for staff members while still maintaining close community ties.

“Gang violence is very much part of the risk we take here,” Cowhig said, “but it’s no more of a risk for us than for everyone else here, children and adults.”