Teen Fatally Shot in His Driveway

A teenager was shot to death in his driveway Friday morning, apparently the victim of gang members who mistook him for a rival, police said.

Francisco Javier Cano, 19, who was bringing in trash cans, was shot several times in front of his home in the 13500 block of Vaughn Street. A car carrying two young men pulled up, and the passenger jumped out and opened fire, said Det. Frank Bishop of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Foothill Division.

“At this point it seems that the suspects believed he was a rival gang member, and, in fact, all he was doing was putting the trash cans away,” Bishop said.

Police arrested a 17-year-old boy from Pacoima within two hours of the 11:15 a.m. shooting. He was driving a gray Lincoln allegedly used in the crime, Bishop said.

Authorities were still searching Friday night for a second teenager believed to be the gunman.

After Cano was shot, he managed to run into the house to his mother and sister, relatives said. He died later at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, said a spokesman for the coroner’s office.

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Stunned members of Cano’s extended family gathered at his house Friday afternoon to mourn a young man they said had recently graduated from high school and planned to join the Navy.

“He had talked to a [Navy] recruiter, and he was studying for his test,” said his cousin, Veronica Esqueda. After that, she said, Cano wanted to become a detective.

“They got the wrong guy,” said Gonzalo Cano, the victim’s brother, his eyes following each car passing the driveway where the teenager had been gunned down.

Though the family lives in a neighborhood where gang feuds are common, Gonzalo Cano said his younger brother had steered clear of trouble. “He never went out. He was no trouble, no nothing.”

Family members said Cano, known to his friends as “Frankie,” had attended San Fernando High School and graduated last year from an extension school. He liked sports and sometimes helped one of his uncles run a softball league in the neighborhood.

“He was a good kid,” said a friend who had stopped by the house to console the family. “Now and then, if they see anybody bald-headed around here they confuse him with a rival gang member and they shoot, without stopping to ask.”