High School Mourns Fatal Shooting of Football Star

This was supposed to be a week of anticipation at Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights, with the whole school looking forward to Friday’s division championship game at the Coliseum.

Students and players did gather around the football team Monday--but sadly, it was to mourn.

Early Sunday, one of the team’s best players, 16-year-old offensive lineman Steve Delgado, was shot to death when he was caught in the middle of a gunfight while leaving a restaurant.

Sheriff’s detectives said Monday that they were unsure exactly who fired the bullets that killed Delgado, a barrel-chested young man who played guard and wore No. 77 on his maroon-and-gold jersey. They are investigating whether Delgado was shot accidentally by security guards.

Investigators described Delgado, a junior at Roosevelt, as the victim of an unlucky chain of events.

He had been to a party at Betty’s Pasta House with his girlfriend, and was being picked up by his mother about 1 a.m.

About that time, a heated argument was taking place between armed guards hired by the restaurant and about 10 people who were leaving, said Los Angeles Police Lt. Ray Peavy. One of the guards thought he saw a gun pointed his way and fired. Two other guards then started shooting.

Delgado, who was sitting in the passenger’s seat of his mother’s car, was hit at least twice.

“There’s no evidence that we were able to discover indicating any rounds were fired by anyone other than security,” Peavy said. “Based on that, the conclusion would be one of the guards shot the young boy. But we’re still not sure.”

Peavy said investigators were waiting for autopsy results, expected today, to make a final determination.

He said the security guards, who were licensed to carry guns, were cooperating with the investigation.

At Roosevelt High, teachers, coaches and friends of Delgado trudged though a long day of sadness.

“Everyone is in pain,” said Delgado’s girlfriend, Serena Estrada.

Estrada and Delgado had gone together to the quinceanera for a girl they knew. She said he had a great time, sharing jokes with friends, reminiscing about the season and talking about Friday’s City Section Invitational Division championship game against Gardena High.

This season has been one of the best in Roosevelt history, with the team winning 10 games and losing three. Delgado had started receiving letters of interest from major colleges.

At the party, Estrada said, “he talked about getting a championship ring. He said he would win one this year and win one next year, his senior season. All he wanted was the ring.”

Estrada spoke as she stood outside the team’s spartan weight room.

Inside, some players sat on benches looking off into the distance. Some hugged and cried. They recalled trips together and many light moments in the locker room. Others looked up at a television, watching edited highlights of their friend playing football. There were shots of Delgado during practice and games, of him tearing out of his low crouch and pancaking an opponent.

Delgado was described as serious on the field and lighthearted off it. He was the kid who snapped others with towels, who mimicked the way his friends walked and who stuffed towels underneath his T-shirt to look bigger.

Delgado’s mother, Maria, visited the weight room Monday to tell the team to fight on.

“She told us to win the game for Steve, that that was what he would want,” said Jody Adewale, 15. “That’s what we will do.”

A shrine of lighted candles decorated the sidewalk in front of Betty’s Pasta House on Monday. A block away, remnants of the shooting’s aftermath remained on a traffic island: discarded surgical gloves, syringe wrappers and dried blood.