Man to Be Charged in Killing of Boy, 6, in Balloon Store

A 19-year-old man already in custody was booked on suspicion of murder Wednesday in the shooting death of a 6-year-old boy at the counter of a balloon shop in South-Central Los Angeles last week.

Investigators said David Williams, a suspected gang member with an extensive juvenilecriminal record, walked up to the glass storefront of Affordable Balloon Creations with a handgun July 3 and began firing indiscriminately.

Police said the gunfire killed Daniel Christopher Raggette, who had gone to the shop looking for decorations for his grandmother’s 25th wedding anniversary party. The shots also wounded his mother. Williams, who police say was acting on instructions from another gang member, will be arraigned on murder charges today.

The balloon shop, tucked into a quiet strip mall, has tumbled into the cross-fire of an ongoing gang feud, police said. A tagger crew expanding into drug trafficking angered an established narcotics gang, which responded by dispatching Williams to “send a message,” said Lt. Sergio Robleto, commanding officer of the South Bureau homicide division.

“He definitely hit the wrong people,” Robleto said. “No 6-year-old was running drugs over there. This is a crazy killer.”

Williams was arrested Friday when investigators served him with a warrant involving an unrelated crime he allegedly committed as a juvenile. After the community was plastered with flyers bearing a computer-generated composite of the suspect in the balloon shop shooting, police gang experts recognized Williams and rebooked him, Capt. Paul Pesqueira said.