D.A. Considers Possible Charges Against Father in Boy’s Suicide : Shooting: Police say the 10-year-old killed himself in a schoolyard with a pistol that belongs to his father. Prosecutors are analyzing whether the parent can be charged because the weapon was accessible to a minor.

The district attorney’s office is deciding whether to file charges against the father of the 10-year-old boy who shot himself to death in a South-Central Los Angeles schoolyard after being suspended from class for misbehavior, police said Friday.

The .380-caliber semiautomatic pistol that Jorge Licea used to fatally wound himself belonged to his father, Jorge Ramiro Licea Aguilar , according to detectives.

Police say the boy had found the weapon hidden beneath a mattress, then loaded the pistol with ammunition that was stored separately, on the top shelf of a bedroom dresser.

Under the Children’s Firearms Protection Act, which took effect in 1992, an adult can face up to three years in state prison and a $10,000 fine for keeping a loaded weapon that is accessible to a minor.

“The district attorney’s office is taking a look at that, and analyzing the case, to see if there is enough there to press charges,” said Detective John Garcia of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Newton Street station. “They won’t have an answer until sometime next week.”

In an interview at the family home, Jorge’s parents said they did not know anything about possible charges, and were more concerned about what could have led their son to take his life. As friends and neighbors arrived with food and condolences, they grappled with possible reasons, frequently breaking down in tears.

The parents said Jorge recently brought home several notes suggesting that he was having problems in class and that each time, they signed them and came in to school as requested.

In the conferences, they were told that “Jorge didn’t answer questions fast enough when he was called on,” said his mother, Maria Franco Luna. “And the notes would say that when he copied things, he was slow.”

One note dated March 28, which was signed by Jorge’s father but was not returned, said the child was “having problems respecting” teachers and other students.

“Jorge was very sensitive,” his father said, adding that the boy was upset he had to apologize in front of the class. “It was really hard on him.

“But we had no idea how hard. My son swallowed his problems. This is so hard. As close as we were, he didn’t tell me,” Licea said, breaking down.

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Detective Garcia said Licea told police that he was investigated by the LAPD four or five years ago for possibly abusing the boy. Licea said that he did strike Jorge once when he was in first grade, but that after he spoke with a detective, the matter was not pursued.

“I don’t think it had any relevance in this case,” Garcia said. “He didn’t beat the child; it was more of a one-strike type of thing.”

The detective said he has not yet determined whether there was a child abuse investigation, or what its outcome might have been.

In any case, Garcia said he does not believe that the child was driven to suicide by fears of punishment by his father. “Quite frankly, I doubt it,” the detective said.

Garcia said a teacher at the 49th Street Elementary School suspended the boy on Tuesday, reportedly for using profane language in his fifth-grade class, although Jorge’s parents said their son never mentioned this to them or showed them a note.

Principal Lemuel Chavis said the boy was sent home with a note that asked his parents to come with him to school on Wednesday to discuss the problem.

Police say the boy apparently stashed the pistol in his backpack before his father drove him to school Wednesday morning.

About 7:30 a.m., as his fellow students filed past him at the front door of the school, the sobbing boy pulled out the pistol, pressed it to his temple and pulled the trigger, according to witnesses.

Despite more than four hours of surgery at the Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the boy never regained consciousness. On Thursday afternoon, moments after he was removed from life-support systems, Jorge Licea died.

“Why do I think he did it?” Garcia asked. “I’ve spoken to the teacher briefly, and I think the boy was upset about being suspended. . . . That was his behavior when he got in trouble, he’d go home crying, upset. . . .

“I’ve talked to his father, his mother, his older brother, they’re all telling me the same thing,” Garcia said. “They don’t understand why. If anything, they’re blaming the pressure school puts on a child.”

Chavis, the school principal, said Wednesday it was difficult for him to believe that the note from the school was sufficient to create the sort of anxiety that would lead to suicide, “unless there was something else bothering him in his personal life or home life.”

Pete Navarro, a lawyer advising the family, reacted strongly Friday to Chavis’ statement.

“The school is solely concerned about liability,” Navarro said. “They are least concerned about the truth. They are least concerned about the grieving process that this family is going through. (Those are) nothing but speculations on their part that (there are) problems going on at home.”