Aid Sought in Finding Killer of 6-Year-Old : Violence: Police release sketch of suspect in apparently random shooting of boy at shop.

The counter of the Affordable Balloon Creations shop in South-Central Los Angeles is rather tall, and 6-year-old Daniel Christopher Raggette could barely peer over it Monday afternoon as he looked through a catalogue of decorations. Kimberly Rodgers remembered the boy’s bright eyes. She had delivered a carload of balloons to his kindergarten graduation party just two weeks earlier.

Now it is the image of that boy, lying motionless on the floor by the counter after a shower of bullets crashed through the storefront, that haunts her at night. Gunfire struck Daniel in the upper body, killing him, and grazed his mother, Andrea Raggette. The killer fled on foot.

“I can’t sleep,” said Rodgers, 23, who runs the shop with her fiance. “It’s like a big nightmare.”

The nightmare began only minutes after Daniel, his mother and his grandmother, Marie Isaacs, strolled into the store in search of party decorations for Isaacs’ silver wedding anniversary celebration. They were perusing the portfolio, choosing color patterns, when a gunman walked up to the store and fired a volley of bullets indiscriminately, shattering the glass door and window.

Tearful family members joined Los Angeles police investigators at a news conference Wednesday to release a computer-generated sketch of the suspect.

“Watch over your children,” Andrea, 31, told parents. “Love them while you have them. You never know when they’re going to be taken away from you. Or how.”

Police said they have few leads in what appears to be a random shooting. They pleaded for community residents to help find the suspect, a black teen-ager who was wearing a knit cap. Police said they plan to distribute copies of the sketch around the neighborhood.

“This shooting is beyond the comprehension of the average person,” said Detective Rudy Lemos. “Our mission is to bring justice to Daniel Christopher Raggette, to Andrea Raggette and their family.”

Still visibly shocked, friends of the family expressed hope, through their rage, that the homicide would be solved.

“I don’t expect this killer to stay out there very long. This was a baby,” said Norma C. Johnson, a city victim assistance coordinator offering aid to the family. “No one’s going to tolerate baby-killing in the community.”

Activists in a community group called Stop the Violence--Increase the Peace, said they will consider starting a Neighborhood Watch patrol in the area. Khalid Shah, the organization’s president, said he plans to ask the City Council to announce a $25,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect. The group sometimes holds meetings in a record store in the strip mall where the shooting took place.

A representative from a church laid a bouquet of blue, pink and white flowers outside the balloon shop, at 5503 S. Vermont Ave., which was closed Wednesday. “May you be with God in heaven,” said a note attached to the flowers.

Rodgers said she does not think she can work in the store again. She said the shop never had been robbed, but she kept the door locked when customers weren’t inside just the same. The smashed remains of the glass storefront were covered by a metal roll door Wednesday.

Witnesses said they never saw the gunman, who ran away. But they remember what he did.

“First I thought it was fireworks. You’d never think it would happen at that shop,” said Keisha Williams, a hairstylist at the salon around the corner. “I just know to keep my door closed. But their door was closed too. You just have to pray to God.”