Peers Mourn Garden Grove High Student : Crime: Fifteen-year-old slain Saturday in a drive-by shooting is remembered for his earnestness and maturity. Friends say he refused to join gangs; police want to know if he had links to taggers.

As authorities probed the drive-by shooting that killed 15-year-old Cesar Torres outside a weekend birthday party, acquaintances Monday recalled a gentle young man who seemed to impress everyone with an earnestness and a maturity well beyond his years.

A former boss recalls being instantly won over by Torres when the Garden Grove High School sophomore showed up for work last summer. The boy’s first question wasn’t about pay or break time, “it was, what was the appropriate thing to wear,” said Ron Suttle, the maintenance chief for the Garden Grove Unified School District.

To overcome trouble with math, Torres took summer classes. He talked excitedly at work about spending a paycheck on a birthday gift for a sibling. Friends said gang members tormented him, trying to get him to join and later threatening him. Torres refused.

“For a 15-year-old, he didn’t have a smart mouth. He was very prompt. He was very conscientious,” said Tim Kibbey, who supervised him in the furniture workshop at the school district. “I would say he was more mature than a 15-year-old kid.”

On Saturday, police and witnesses said, Torres was one of three young people shot as they left a crowded birthday party by gunmen in two cars prowling a normally sedate Garden Grove neighborhood. The two other victims were shot in the legs and treated at a local clinic. Police withheld their names because they are juveniles.

Police declined to discuss the case in detail but said Monday that the shooting may have stemmed from a dispute between rival groups of graffiti taggers. It was not known if Torres was affiliated with either group, police said.

“One of the questions we’re trying to find out is if it’s a gang-related incident, and I use ‘gang’ in the loosest sense of the word,” Capt. Dave Abrecht said. “We just don’t know.”

Abrecht said investigators interviewed witnesses again Monday seeking a motive and clues in the shooting, which took place at about 10:50 p.m. in the 11600 block of Faye Avenue.

Sally Heraldez, the sister of Torres’ girlfriend, said Torres had been threatened after refusing to join a local gang. Heraldez said her family is staying away from their house, where the party was held. The family spent Monday packing up belongings and were moving from the house, which was for sale prior to the party.

Among the possessions she was packing were family photographs, including a shot of Torres and Gabriela Escobar, his girlfriend for two years.

“The last two years of his life, he just wanted to be with my sister,” Heraldez said. “They were like best friends--inseparable.”

At the high school Monday, psychologists and other district counselors comforted grieving students, and Torres was described by the principal as a low-key student who got “average to below-average” grades.

Fellow students were notified of Torres’ death during the morning announcements and responded by setting up a fund to help his family pay for funeral expenses, Principal Peggy Mahfood said. Donations are being accepted at the school.

The crew at the school district’s maintenance yard was in shock Monday.

Torres was selected for a city-run summer job program for disadvantaged youths last summer, officials said. When he indicated he enjoyed working with his hands, Torres was placed in the maintenance center fixing chairs and desks alongside employees three times his age, Kibbey said. Eager to learn and always early for work, Torres was soon a popular fixture.

“He was quiet--a quiet kid at first,” Kibbey said. As Torres warmed up, he talked a lot about his girlfriend and spoke fondly of his family. Two days a week, he went to classes to catch up in math. His work supervisors tried to help out by giving him work-related number problems to solve.

Torres mentioned to co-workers that gang members had tried to get him to join, but he kept refusing, Kibbey said.

“This guy didn’t even come close to fitting the (gang) mold. He had a buzz haircut, but that was it,” Kibbey said. “He was like a lamb.”

Torres so enjoyed his summer job, he asked to return next year, officials said. He even talked about working full time at the maintenance yard after graduation.

“He fit in with a bunch of middle-aged guys who are pretty tough,” Kibbey said. “There are a bunch of big guys who are pretty hurt over this.”