2nd Suspect Sought in Shooting of Teacher

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of a second suspect in the stray-bullet shooting that left a 30-year-old schoolteacher with permanent brain damage, Los Angeles police said Wednesday night. Antonio Chaves Morales, 19, is suspected of assisting Frazier Joseph Francis, 18, in the Feb. 22 attack that wounded fifth-grade teacher Alfredo Perez and sparked widespread outrage.

Francis, a reputed gang member, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges that he fired the bullet that lodged in Perez’s skull. Francis was ordered held on $615,000 bail and his preliminary hearing on charges of assault with a deadly weapon and attempted murder was scheduled for April 2 in Compton Municipal Court.

Det. Armando Moriel of the LAPD’s South Bureau homicide division said Francis fired two shots at a man driving by whom he recognized as a member of a rival gang faction.

The shots missed their target. One of them pierced a second-floor classroom window at the Figueroa Street Elementary School but missed the teacher and 21 students there. The other passed through a window of the school’s first-floor library. Perez, who was visiting the library with his class of 23 fifth-graders, was struck in the head.

Initially, the 30-year-old teacher was not expected to live. But as his condition gradually improved, he was removed from life-support systems and transferred from an intensive care unit to a transition ward. Doctors said he will be moved to a rehabilitation center when a lingering bout with pneumonia is cured, possibly as early as today.

Despite brain damage, Perez has demonstrated that he still has use of his cognitive skills, according to Dr. George Locke, the neurologist who has been treating the teacher at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center.

“I’m hoping and I expect that within four to six months, he will be back at the school,” Locke said.

The shooting--which attracted national attention and prompted telephone calls from President Clinton expressing sympathy--shattered illusions that students and teachers are safe in their classrooms. Last week, bulletproof windows were installed on the first floor of the school and similar windows will be installed on the second floor this weekend.