Community Gathers to Honor Slain 12-Year-Old

In a Boyle Heights neighborhood racked by violence, where five people have been killed since July, the shooting death of 12-year-old “Berto” has resonated through the old block buildings like few before.

He was the 12-year-old kid who made them laugh, the little wise guy who knew every one. He was un inocente.

Roberto Villalpando was buried Wednesday at Resurrection Cemetery surrounded by hundreds of friends, family members and neighbors. The night before, an equally large overflow crowd gathered at the Dolores Mission in Pico Aliso to pay their respects and say goodbye to the boy.

Even here in these housing projects in the flats, where the feuds started so long ago that the youths now pulling guns have no idea why and when the fighting began, Roberto’s death provoked a profound outpouring of grief.

“Until when will we have to suffer this in our community?” said Father Gregory Boyle during a service in Spanish. “When will the violence end? The death of a little boy will never be the will of God.”

Last week, Roberto was going to spend the night at his cousin’s house when someone opened fire behind him, presumably aiming at a nearby gang member. A stray bullet ripped through Roberto’s side and broke his spine. He died in a hospital before sunrise.

Boyle, a Jesuit priest who works with youths in the projects and knew Roberto well, recalled his perpetual smile and precocious wit.

“Berto was the real deal,” Boyle said. “He had the real heart, the real love, the real possibility and potential. We were privileged to know him.”

After Tuesday night’s service, as residents lined up to view Berto’s body, mothers clutched their children and leaned over the coffin, tearfully stroking his pale forehead. Then they stepped outside in the full moonlight and talked about a random killing they just can’t accept.

“It’s messed up because he wasn’t a gangster,” said Alberto Mendoza, 15, a friend. “Now that it happened, we won’t go outside. They might just pop out and start shooting”

Boyle said that since arriving in 1986, he has buried 66 young men from the area. Only two, Roberto and a 13-year-old who died several years ago, were not involved with gangs, he said.

“These kids are used to gang members dying,” he said. “That’s what they expect and unfortunately have grown somewhat accustomed to.”

Amparo Ortega, 12, lived across the street from Roberto and hasn’t gone outside since the incident.

“I’m scared of walking,” she said. “I’m scared of cars passing by. He was my best friend. He never did anything to anybody.”

Though residents in this tightly bound community always grieve for their fallen sons, they said that when a victim is a gang member, it is easier to rationalize a feeling of personal security.

Some said they felt relatively safe before, determined to walk the streets and live freely. Others, however, said they have become increasingly afraid this summer, as shooting in daylight has become more common.

Rudy Jimenez, principal of Hollenbeck Middle School where Roberto was a student and peer counselor, said he has never seen students and faculty so distraught.

“Teachers, when they heard what happened, even the males, were crying,” he said.

The body of the second victim in the shooting, Wilson Chavez, was flown back to his native Guatemala, police said. Investigators said there are no suspects in the slayings.