Shooting Victim Mourned, Remembered

In his short life, Robert Anthony Fierro’s outgoing nature and quick smile earned him a wide circle of friends.

So many of those friends came to his funeral Mass on Saturday morning that they filled to overflowing the wooden pews of Holy Spirit Catholic Church, leaving dozens standing at the back of the church throughout the service. An estimated 800 people attended, a church official said.

Still stunned by Fierro’s shooting death in an apparent carjacking, mourners prayed silently before a sun-bathed altar while Father Joseph Knerr spoke about the tragedy.

He described how Fierro, 22, of Garden Grove held down two jobs while attending Rancho Santiago College in Santa Ana, and his plans to graduate and move on to Cal State Fullerton.

“Why did this have to happen to a good young man?” Knerr asked. “We shouldn’t be in this church for a memorial Mass this morning.”

Fierro, a former basketball standout at Bolsa Grande High School in Garden Grove, was fatally wounded before dawn Oct. 20 in an unincorporated area near Anaheim.

His family said he was following a friend who was towing a customized car to a Montebello car show.

After the two pulled over because of car problems, two men in ski masks and black clothes approached Fierro, fired at him and fled in his 1993 Honda Accord, police said.

The car was found partly stripped and abandoned in Stanton.

Fierro was earning his way through college by working every day of the week at two jobs, at United Parcel Service during the week and at an office supply store on weekends.

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He was majoring in criminal justice and considering a career in law enforcement, said his mother, Virginia Fierro, who hopes to start a scholarship fund at Rancho Santiago College in his name.

His friends talked Saturday of the injustice of such a promising life cut short by violence.

“He was just one year older than me. It makes you think,” said Jose Herrera, 21, of Fullerton, who sometimes played basketball with Fierro. “A car isn’t worth a life. He didn’t deserve this.”

A graveside ceremony followed the funeral Mass at Good Shepherd Cemetery in Huntington Beach.

“Everyone is hurting right now,” said Vanessa Rivera, 19, of Tustin. She and other young people wore black T-shirts with the inscription, “In loving memory of Robert Fierro,” printed in white across the back.

“This is the only way to express our feelings,” said Rivera, who was crying openly. “Maybe he’s watching us from Heaven right now.”