Man Held in Shooting of Two at Baby Shower

A South-Central Los Angeles boy remained in critical condition at a hospital Monday, two days after an alleged gang member opened fire at an outdoor baby shower, wounding the youngster and a woman.

Sgt. Tom Ward of the Los Angeles Police Department said officers have arrested a 21-year-old member of the 18th Street gang, who was allegedly present during the shooting but is not believed to have fired the bullets that wounded Jaime Aguilar, 11.

Ward, who said officers are seeking the gunman, refused to identify either suspect because of the continuing investigation.

Meanwhile, a nursing supervisor at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center said that although Jaime is in critical condition, “he is improving.”

Nurse Betty Washington said she was told by the treating physician that the youngster is paralyzed on one side of his body “because of a major brain injury from the gunshot wound.”

On Sunday morning, Jaime underwent surgery for four gunshot wounds--one to the back of his head.

An 18-year-old woman was also shot in the arm Saturday evening in the apparently unprovoked attack. The woman, who is not related to Jaime, was released from the hospital and reported to be in good condition.

Witnesses said two young men with possible gang affiliations came to survey the Saturday night baby shower being given for Jaime’s sister-in-law. Family members said the men left after being told it was not a gang party.

But Sgt. Ward said the two men were angry about seeing two members of the rival Florencia gang at a party in a neighborhood “that is in [18th Street’s] turf.”

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Shortly after midnight, as party-goers prepared to leave, one of the two young men returned to the house, a two-story stucco building in a narrow alley near Figueroa and 81st streets. The gunman fired six shots at a crowd of about five people assembled in the courtyard, one witness said.

The wounded woman was apparently shot when she tried to protect Aguilar by pushing the boy out of the line of fire, witnesses said. No one at the house knew the woman’s name, but they said she had come to the party with a friend of the family. Police did not disclose her name.