Father of Slain Girl, 6, Wants Shooting to Stop

Tuesday was the day David Gomez turned 35. It was also the day his 6-year-old daughter was killed by a stranger who probably didn’t even notice her as she sat in the back seat of a station wagon idling at a stoplight on Vermont Avenue.

Gomez stood stoically in the parking lot of a police station Wednesday, speaking only briefly during a news conference about his daughter’s death. He was not one to fashion his grief into words, at least not for the assembled reporters and television cameras.

But one thing he could say was that he wants “all the shooting to stop.”

“He just wants the authorities to stop the crime,” said Los Angeles Police Det. Adrian Soler, translating for Gomez and two family friends. “Nothing can be done for his daughter. She won’t be coming back.”

A single bullet--one of a shower fired during an apparent gang dispute--struck Karina Gomez in the back of the head Tuesday at 4 p.m. as she rode with a family friend and his two children. The first-grader died at a nearby hospital 2 1/2 hours later.

Police on Wednesday released an alleged gang member who was arrested shortly after the slaying, saying he did not appear to be the shooter. By midafternoon another suspect was arrested after turning himself in at the Hollywood Division station. Carlos Mario Rosales, 21, did not confess to the crime, Officer Jason Lee said, but told police he had stepped forward because he saw his mug shot broadcast on local television stations.

Police had released the photograph at a morning news conference after confirming that Rosales was in possession of the car that carried the gunman, which was traced through a license plate number recalled by witnesses. When photos were shown to witnesses, they also named Rosales as the gunman, Lee said.

Rosales was booked Wednesday night into Parker Center Jail on suspicion of murder.

Police said they had gotten an unusual number of tips from the community.

“In most cases we get very little help from the public,” Soler said. “I think the public has rallied to the support of the child and her family.”

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The shooting occurred at Vermont and Melrose avenues after three men exchanged words with two others at a gas station. When the two men drove off, police said, one or more members of the trio started shooting with a handgun.

Eight to 15 bullets were fired into the street. Two of them hit cars. In one vehicle, no one was hurt. In the other, Karina was mortally wounded.

“She was a very happy child,” family friend Fidelina Ramirez said at Wednesday’s news conference. “What happened to Karina was not just.” A few minutes later she broke into sobs as David Gomez comforted her.

The day before Karina’s death, Ramirez said, the girl had skipped over the years to her quinceanera, talking of what her 15th birthday celebration would be like.

The killing occurred the same week police announced homicides have reached a 20-year low in Los Angeles. There were still more than 560 of them this year--but no one expects to become one of those statistics.

If they did, said Marcos Vargas, the family friend who was driving the car in which Karina was shot, “nobody would leave their homes.”

Gangs are no strangers to the neighborhood, which is home to both the Braille Institute for the Blind and Los Angeles City College. But police said shootings are usually farther south in the LAPD’s Rampart Division--and late at night.

“It’s scary to think that this happened during the day,” said Cora Bersalon, 40, who lives in an apartment not far from where the shooting occurred.

She heard a car skidding and the gunshots while preparing dinner Tuesday night. She looked out her window, heard a man calling for help and phoned 911.

“I closed the window, I closed the curtains,” Bersalon said.

Bersalon said she no longer feels comfortable sending her children or husband to pick up groceries after dark.

The Braille Institute is across the street from the gas station where the shots were fired. The community college is a block north. Both were closed for the holidays.

“We’re grateful that no students were around,” said Nancy Niebrugge, a spokeswoman for the institute. “We’re sorry to hear about the shooting. It touches us to hear this.”

Not far away, a man who identified himself only as Ricardo repaired his car while his children and relatives played in his home’s small yard. The children are usually kept inside the house for protection, he said.

Disgusted at the violence, he said that if the gunman “wanted to kill someone, he should kill himself.”

Times staff writers Vanessa Hua and Amy Pyle contributed to this story.