LA HABRA : Boy, 15, Critically Wounded by Gunfire

A 15-year-old boy was critically wounded Thursday night in what police say was an apparent gang-related shooting. Cesar Garcia of La Habra was shot three times in the torso about 9 p.m. at the intersection of La Casa and Buena Vista avenues.

He was taken to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton by three unidentified youths. The youths were questioned by police but said they knew nothing about the shooting, said La Habra Police Sgt. Matt Stoner.

“They say he came home that way,” Stoner said. Police have no suspects or witnesses to the shooting.

Hospital officials said Garcia’s condition was upgraded to serious Friday, but his father, Joe Garcia, said his son was paralyzed from the waist down.

The father said his son was a member of a gang but never carried a firearm.

“He helped to clean graffiti from the city. He visited the White House,” the elder Garcia said.

“He’s a sweet boy. He’s got a lot of love to give,” said Luz Onesto, co-founder of New Generation Youth Foundation, a youth group that Garcia belonged to for a year and a half.

The teen-ager traveled to Washington with the youth group in the summer of 1992 and enjoyed periodic barbecues sponsored by Onesto and her husband.

Onesto said she often told Garcia not to hang out on the streets. “He knows it,” she said. “But it’s hard to change.”

Garcia is a sophomore at the Opportunity Class, an alternative learning program at Sonora High School in La Habra.

Police ask that anyone with information about the shooting call the La Habra police gang hot line at (714) 905-9797.