Family Recalls Slain Boy as a Young Hero

What can you say about a 12-year-old boy who dies? That he loved Little League and professional wrestling. That, in death, his liver was used in a transplant that helped save a woman’s life. That in his last seconds of life, he tried to save some of his friends.

That is what the family and friends of Steven Morales recalled Friday at a funeral Mass six days after the Highland Park boy was shot near his home.

Steven’s family had found some small solace in the organ donation, which has extended the life of a bookkeeper from Moreno Valley named Lori House.

As the week ended and more details of the shooting continued to emerge, the Morales family found another measure of consolation. Neighbors told them how Steven had pushed and coaxed his playmates to get inside when shots shattered the routine of a steamy Saturday evening.

Father Arturo Velasco, addressing about 500 relatives and friends at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, said: “We will be consoled by the impression of a young boy who tried to save other lives.”

Lilliana Gonzales, a neighbor, said her 6-year-old son told her that Steven urged him to run home just as the shooting started.

“Steven was his angel,” Gonzales said, her voice quavering, “if he took the bullet for my son.”

Another neighbor, Yasmira Gonzales, said she saw Steven pushing away a young boy during the gunfire.

Police confirmed that they, too, had heard witnesses describe how Steven urged several of the 15 children he had been playing baseball with to seek safety. When Steven turned toward the gunman, 150 feet away, he was hit in the forehead by a single shot.

But homicide detectives said Friday that they have no new information on their search for the gunman, described as Latino, 25 to 30 years old, driving a dark blue or black pickup truck. The shooting is believed to have been a gang attack gone awry.

Befitting their son’s actions, Steven’s parents made sure he was buried with honors. A Junior ROTC honor guard from Franklin High School that includes his older brother, Rudy, draped the casket with the American flag at the Mass. At Resurrection Cemetery in Montebello, they stood at attention and delivered the folded flag to Steven’s mother.

“He wasn’t per se in a war like we know, but he was part of a street war and he did die a hero,” said Yolanda Morales. “My son tried to protect the younger children from getting hurt.”

A hero, yes, but still a 12-year-old. So Steven’s father, Jack, placed three T-shirts in his son’s coffin, each depicting one of his son’s wrestling idols.

At St. Ignatius, Steven’s aunt excoriated gang members and drug dealers and implored the audience to drive thugs away from their community.

“To the parents of the young man that did this, I send sympathies to them, because they will also lose a son,” said Natalie Hernandez. “We need to say as a community that we do not tolerate it, we don’t want you, the gang-bangers, we don’t want you in our area. Stay away!”

Later at the cemetery, the sister of the woman who received Steven’s liver tried to console Jack and Yolanda Morales. Lori House had been in critical condition, near death, until she received Steven’s liver Monday.

“My sister told me that she had had a dream and that an angel told her not to worry, that everything would be OK,” said Jodi Yanker, House’s sister. “Now we found out that the little boy’s nickname was Angel.”