Boy Shot in Minivan Identified; 12-Year-Old Killed Outside Store

An 11-year-old boy who was fatally shot in the head in North Hollywood as he rode in his family’s minivan was identified by authorities Sunday as Paul Youhanian of Valencia.

Los Angeles police had no suspects in the Saturday shooting near the Hollywood Freeway. The boy was in the back seat of a blue minivan driven by his mother.

A spokesman for the California Highway Patrol said the shooting, which shattered a passenger window, did not appear to be related to a wave of window-shattering freeway attacks, which have numbered more than 200 since Sept. 11.

And 12-year-old Antoine Andre Cook Jr. was killed and two adults were slightly wounded Sunday night in what Los Angeles police called a gang-related shooting outside a liquor store in South-Central Los Angeles.

The boy was standing outside Ram’s Market and Liquor on East 97th Street, according to Los Angeles police Officer Eduardo Fumes, when a green four-door car drove by and its occupants shouted a gang slogan. The car made a U-turn, and a gunman in the back seat opened fire with a semiautomatic weapon. Antoine was struck once in the head and pronounced dead at the scene.

In the North Hollywood shooting, Silvia and Teresa Hernandez, who were sitting in front of their apartment at the time, said they tried to help the wounded boy.

As Hernandez tried to stop the bleeding, her 15-year-old daughter Teresa helped a younger brother, 3, out of the minivan.

It remained unclear Sunday whether the attack was a random drive-by shooting or whether the family was the intended target.