ANAHEIM : Teen’s Shooting Death Amplifies Anxieties in Crime-Plagued Area

A 17-year-old youth was found shot to death in an alley on Juno Avenue early Thursday, shocking a neighborhood eroded by crime, residents said.

Residents were awakened by a series of gunshots about 1:15 a.m. and called police, who arrived at the 1500 block of Juno Avenue minutes later to find the youth’s body.

The teen-ager, whose name has not been released, had been shot at least once in the upper torso. Police don’t know the motive for the killing, Sgt. Steve Rodig said.

A resident who lives with his mother said he was still shaken hours later by the sight of the body lying a few feet from his front door.

“I have been thinking about it all morning long,” said the man, who requested anonymity. “Never in my life have I seen somebody lying dead like that. He was young, there was so much potential. It’s all very tragic.”

The man has lived in the same house since 1966 and said he has watched crime infest his neighborhood, where once “you could go out for a walk at night.”

“Now nobody in their right mind would go out there at night,” the man said. “Everybody has put up bars. It’s like a prison here.”

The killing happened about three blocks from an apartment complex where earlier this week a 25-year-old man allegedly shot his girlfriend to death after an argument, apparently over his suspicions that she had another boyfriend, police and relatives said.

Helen Marie Veloz, 20, was found lying in her apartment in the 1200 block of South Euclid Street about 8:30 p.m. Sunday. Her boyfriend, Thomas Rufino Tongpalan, surrendered to police afterward and was arrested on suspicion of murder.