Boy, 6, covered in spray paint by tagger

A teenage gang member was arrested Wednesday for allegedly spray-painting the face and body of a 6-year-old boy who saw him vandalizing a wall, authorities said.

Another teenager allegedly restrained the child while the 15-year-old who was arrested sprayed him with blue paint, said Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Capt. James Hellmold.

The boy’s mother found him covered in paint and crying, Hellmold said.

The incident occurred on the afternoon of June 25 in Willowbrook, an unincorporated area near Compton.

“This actually shocks the conscience,” said Hellmold, captain of the Lynwood sheriff’s station. “You see a lot on things done by gang members, but even in gang crime terms this crosses the line. This is horrendous.”

He said he hoped deputies soon would also arrest the teenager who held the child down.

“We aren’t about to let anyone get away with such a horrible act,” Hellmold said.

He said the teenager in custody provided clues that helped police arrest him because he sprayed his gang affiliation and moniker on a nearby wall just before attacking the child. People in the community also came forward and helped deputies identify him, Hellmold said.

The 15-year-old was already in custody on suspicion of theft but was detained Wednesday on suspicion of kidnapping, assault with a caustic chemical and felony vandalism.

Hellmold said both suspects are considered gang members, but he declined to release the name of the gang, saying he did not want them to garner any claim to the area.

Because the suspects are juveniles, the Sheriff’s Department is not releasing their names.

The victim, Hellmold said, was recovering from the assault but would not talk about it.

In the last 18 months, Los Angeles and Orange counties have seen a series of violent attacks by taggers and gang members spraying graffiti.

A Garden Grove man was shot in April after he surprised two men defacing a wall near his home.

A Pico Rivera woman, Maria Elena Hicks, 57, was driving home Aug. 10 when she spotted a teenager tagging a wall near her home. She honked and flashed the car lights at him and then followed him in her car when he walked away. Then a car pulled up behind her and a gunman fired several shots through her car’s rear window. Hicks was struck in the head and died three days later. Four suspects, ranging in age from 16 to 21, were charged in her killing.

In February 2007, a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy was stabbed and briefly hospitalized after he confronted a tagger behind a Huntington Beach pet store. A 16-year-old was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

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richard.winton@latimes.com