Boy, 10, Shot in Head at Sleepover Birthday Party

A 10-year-old Los Angeles boy was critically injured early Sunday when he was shot in the head by a man who allegedly fired into a crowd at a children’s birthday party, seeking to hit a rival. The suspected gunman was later arrested, police said.

The unidentified boy was taken to County-USC Medical Center after a bullet passed through the back of his skull and through his brain, police said.

His 35-year-old mother suffered bullet wounds to both legs in the attack, police said.

Late Sunday afternoon, the suspect, Terry Lamount Newman, a 25-year-old parolee, turned himself in.

Police said they received a call from his attorney after Newman went to Midway Hospital for treatment after being wounded in an unrelated brawl before the shooting. Detectives went to the hospital and took him into custody.

The shooting occurred about 1:30 a.m. at a duplex in the 3700 block of Normandie Avenue, where about a dozen children and their parents had gathered for a baby’s birthday party, followed by a sleepover, police said.

Detectives said Newman, who was acquainted with the occupants of the duplex, allegedly had quarreled with another man at the party.

Witnesses told police that Newman showed up, stood outside, yelled profanity and challenges, and behaved belligerently.

The conflict escalated to a fight, and someone at the duplex allegedly struck Newman with a folding chair. The brawl drew numerous onlookers, including several children attending the party, detectives said.

At some point, Newman, who had been knocked flat by the blow from the chair, got to his feet, stood in the street before the house, and allegedly drew a gun, said Det. Don Richards of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Southwest Division.

Several shots were fired, Richards said, but none hit the man with whom Newman had been fighting.

But as the children and their parents ran for cover inside the house, the mother was struck and the boy fell wounded on the walkway, police said.

Sgt. David Christian, who arrived shortly after the shooting, said there was “a lot of blood and a lot of upset children.”

The boy already had been taken to the hospital when he arrived, Christian said, but the mother was just being lifted into an ambulance.

“She was hysterical,” he said. “She kept saying, ‘My baby’s been shot, my baby’s been hit.’ ”