Honor Student Slain, 2 Other Teens Shot

Esmeralda was the shy one, the honor student who would rather hole up with her books in her apartment than venture onto the streets beyond the steel security door. The 17-year-old had just finished reading “The Last of the Mohicans.”

In their Long Beach neighborhood, her younger sister Miriam was the more outgoing, and the 15-year-old recently coaxed Esmeralda to come outside more often.

So Thursday night about 10, the Alvarez sisters happened to be standing on the porch of a nearby apartment, talking and chewing gum with some neighborhood boys when a young man walked up under the Christmas lights.

The man apparently asked a question that, depending on the answer, often precedes a gang attack: “What crib are you from?” He paused nervously, then pulled an assault rifle from his sweatshirt and opened fire, witnesses said.

Both sisters and a boy were hit several times in a hail of bullets that chipped the bricks behind them. Esmeralda Alvarez was struck in the head and chest. She died later at a hospital.

The other victims were each wounded in an arm and a leg and are listed in stable condition at area hospitals, officials said.

Although police said they had no suspects--and no idea whether the shooter knew any members of the group he fired upon--friends and family were reeling, trying to understand how the most quiet, diligent kid on the street could die so violently.

On Friday morning, neighbors started a collection envelope, laid out flowers and gathered the girls’ few belongings, which had been left scattered on the porch. They carried Esmeralda’s wire-rimmed glasses and a pen back to her mother.

At the small apartment a block away, the mother, Maria Saeb, repeatedly apologized for the clutter and kept her composure by focusing on the details of the day. She told reporters about Miriam’s condition in the hospital. She talked about Esmerelda’s quinceanera party and pointed out her pictures and a long row of books.

But, in bouts, the previous night’s finality overwhelmed her.

“I don’t believe it,” she cried. “It’s impossible. I’m waiting for her to be back in the house with me.”

Esmeralda was the warm-hearted girl who made her mom’s life easier. She did the dishes and took care of the third sister, who is 11.

She worked hard at school, got into all the accelerated classes and had just received a scholarship to Long Beach City College, her mother said proudly. Some kids called her “nerd.” The teenager wanted to become a teacher and spent her summer vacation volunteering at an elementary school.

Maria Saeb is a churchgoing, single mom from Mexico scraping by as a nurse assistant. She works at Long Beach Memorial Hospital and sometimes at a convalescent home. She studied to get her registered nurse’s license but didn’t have enough time in the day to finish the program, she said. She was working Thursday night when she got the call that her daughters were shot.

Friends in the neighborhood said the night started normally. The sisters strolled by Sofia Parra’s house next door sometime after dark. Esmeralda doted over Parra’s 2-year-old baby. “I can still hear her say it: ‘Oh she’s so cute, Isabel’s so cute,’ ” Parra said.

After chatting about half an hour, the Alvarez sisters headed down the block to the usual hangout spot, the porch of an old apartment building in the 300 block of East Ninth Street. Miriam’s boyfriend was there and some other friends.

Neighbors say the boys in the group dress like cholos because it’s the style in the neighborhood, not because they’re gang members. But some of the apartments’ residents have complained about their loitering there.

Aida Valencia, 23, who lives upstairs, was their friend and saw the shooting. At about 10 p.m., she peered out her son’s bedroom window to see if the group was still downstairs. She noticed a man standing in the street lights wearing a thick “Michigan” sweatshirt.

She said he asked what neighborhood they were from.

Valencia couldn’t see the girls, and couldn’t hear an answer. She said Esmeralda was far too shy to say anything.

Miriam’s boyfriend seemed to notice the gun first and leaped onto the porch. When the shooting started, Valencia jumped away from the window and called police.

Her sister Arlene ran downstairs and found a gruesome scene. Miriam was lying on the ground, telling Valencia to pick up her sister, who had suffered a massive head wound. “Can you talk?” Arlene Valencia asked.

“A little,” Esmeralda replied faintly, then went unconscious, Valencia said.

Paramedics arrived quickly and took the victims to the hospital, as word spread through the neighborhood who had been shot.

Long Beach Police Sgt. Steve Filippini said the community endures sporadic violence. “There have been some recent violent incidents in that immediate area.”

Police would not yet identify the third victim and said the suspect is described as an 18-year-old thin black man, who is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall.

Neighbor Letty Vasquez, 35, spent the night thinking about Esmeralda, who often came to her apartment to buy cheap clothes and dollar-bracelets.

“What hurts me the most is that it was her,” she said. “How is it possible?”