Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Charges Won’t Be Filed in Youth’s Shooting : Acton: The wheelchair-bound man fired at 2 teen-agers tampering with his car, killing a third boy he didn’t see.

A wheelchair-bound Acton man who fatally shot one of three 14-year-old boys who were trying to steal a car from the man’s ranch will face no criminal charges, authorities said Monday.

Malcom McWilliams, 52, fired a warning shot Thursday night from his porch at two youths he saw tampering with the car, killing a third teen-ager he did not see, said Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Myron Jenkins.

Jenkins said the youths had also tried to steal the car the previous day and apparently knew McWilliams was handicapped.

“You have a person paralyzed from the waist down in a wheelchair and all alone,” he said. “You have to take that into consideration.”

McWilliams told sheriff’s investigators that he intended to give the youths a lecture about joy-riding, using a June 1 incident involving his granddaughters as an example. The girls were joy-riding June 1 when their car collided head-on with a second vehicle.

One of McWilliams’ granddaughters, JoKema Du Bois, 15, was killed. Her sister, Barbara, 14, was seriously injured and is expected to be mentally and physically impaired for life. Two other girls were killed in the crash.

In Thursday’s shooting, a bullet from McWilliams’ .30-30 carbine went through a rusted-out Pontiac Firebird, striking and killing Ernesto Pedraza, 14, of Apple Valley. Jenkins said Pedraza was hiding behind the Firebird after crawling out of a Chevrolet Chevette he was trying to start.

Pedraza’s family could not be reached for comment.

Sheriff’s deputies arrested McWilliams on suspicion of involuntary manslaughter, but described him as “very cooperative” and “very upset.”

Friends of McWilliams said he is normally jovial, but that the accident involving his granddaughters had left him despondent and that the shooting had made him suicidal.

Jenkins said there was no evidence to support felony charges such as murder or recklessly discharging a firearm against McWilliams.

“He fired away from where he thought they were stealing his car,” Jenkins said. “He didn’t fire over their heads because there was a campground next door.”

Involuntary manslaughter charges were rejected because there was nothing to suggest McWilliams acted recklessly, Jenkins added.

“He just didn’t point a gun out the window and fire without knowing where he was pointing,” he said.

McWilliams was released from custody Monday afternoon, Jenkins said.

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