SAN BERNARDINO: Toddler killed in shootout
12:39 PM PDT on Wednesday, September 14, 2011
San BernardinoUPDATED: 11:00 a.m.
A man's attempt to stop an assault on a San Bernardino street led to a shooting that killed a 3-year-old girl and left a pregnant mother and her young daughter in critical condition, police said Tuesday.
About 7:40 p.m. Monday, a man in his early 20s began firing at the house in the 1300 block of North D Street as the mother and girls were playing on the front porch, family members and police said.
About an hour earlier, one of about a dozen people who live in the targeted house had seen the suspect beating a woman in the neighborhood and intervened, giving the woman a chance to escape, police Lt. Gwendolyn Waters said during a Tuesday morning news conference.
"Someone from that residence did a good thing ... and tried to save another woman from being assaulted," Waters said.
San Bernardino Police Chief Keith Kilmer said the shooter probably was out for revenge.
"A lot of incidents like this revolve around a perceived disrespect," he said. "People harbor these things, and then they act on that anger."
The crimes rocked the city's leaders as well as officers on the street, many of whom have young children of their own. Police asked anyone who knows who the shooter is to share that information with investigators.
"We believe there are individuals who have information that can help us solve this tragic, senseless, despicable homicide," said Kilmer, the father of a 3-year-old. "Our hearts go out to the family. When you have the death of a child, no matter how tough you are, no matter how experienced you are, it still gets to you."
The shooting was one of four that occurred in the city in less than 12 hours from Monday evening to Tuesday morning.
The crimes hit just days before the city's biggest annual event -- the Route 66 Rendezvous -- and after 66 days with no homicides.
Mayor Patrick Morris said it's important that people understand that the shooting of children and a pregnant mother is an anomaly in the city, which has seen violent crime decline over the past decade.
'AN ABERRATION'
"This weekend we expect a half million visitors," the mayor said. "This is our annual Route 66 Rendezvous, when we expect 2,000 classic cars and half a million out-of-towners to join us in celebration of Route 66 and the classic car culture. This crime is an aberration."
After what the mayor described as a relatively peaceful summer, San Bernardino was hit by four shootings in quick succession Monday evening and early Tuesday.
It began at 5:50 p.m. Monday when a man was shot and wounded outside a store at Foothill Boulevard and Meridian Avenue, on the west side of the city. The man, whose name was not released, was in good condition Tuesday, police said. The shooter fled in a car with several other people. No arrests have been made.
Then, at 5:59 p.m. Monday, a group of men in a car driving along the 100 block of East Olive Street opened fire on a group of pedestrians, police said.
The pedestrians fired back. One of the men in the car suffered a head wound and is in extremely critical condition, Waters said. A 28-year-old pedestrian suffered a leg wound.
A 17-year-old Rialto youth was arrested for investigation of attempted murder, police said. His name was withheld because he is a minor. The injured men also were not identified.
The final shooting in the series came at 5:15 a.m. Tuesday in the 700 block of East Highland Avenue, just east of St. Bernardine Medical Center, where a female pedestrian was shot in the face, Waters said.
The wound is not life-threatening, she said. No other details about that crime were available Tuesday.
Bullet-riddled house
Police arrived at the D Street shooting scene about a minute after the crime was reported, Kilmer said.
Nylah Franco-Torres, 3, was pronounced dead at 7:55 p.m. at a hospital emergency room.
La-Donna Howie, 21, was hit in the neck and jaw and was in critical but stable condition Tuesday at San Bernardino County Medical Center, officials said. She is about five months' pregnant and her unborn child is in good condition so far, Waters said.
Her daughter, Justine, also 3, remains in extremely critical condition at Loma Linda University Children's Hospital.
She is in a medically induced coma from a gunshot to the back of the head that exited her right temple according to a family member.
"As of this morning, she's still in severely critical condition," San Bernardino police Lt. Gwen Waters said. "She's definitely fighting and she has a fighting chance."
On Tuesday morning, the front of the tan home with green trim at D and Wabash streets was riddled with bullet holes. Puddles of blood remained on the porch, where the mother and children had been playing.
Thirteen-year-old Destiny Hull cried as she mopped up the blood.
She added Nylah's doll to a growing memorial of candles and stuffed animals in the front yard.
"What ever happened to my granddaughter was cowardly," said Sophia Cardona, who said she is Howie's grandmother and Nylah's great-grandmother. "He knew what he was doing and he wanted to hurt somebody."
About a dozen people were at the house at the time, police said.
Officials said the crime did not appear to be gang-related. Police have been called to the D Street house on previous occasions, but those calls "were not in any way related to this crime," Waters said.
Officers urged the woman who was being beaten by the shooting suspect to contact police.
She has not reported the crime, nor have several adult black males who were nearby and witnessed it, Waters said.
Officials believe they can identify the shooter, whom she described as a black male, weighing 160 to 170 pounds with a thin build and short, dark hair.
Morris and Kilmer said crime has been declining in San Bernardino over the past several years.
The city has had 23 homicides so far this year, and totaled 31 last year, Kilmer said.
That's about a third as many as the city had a decade ago.
Morris credited a crime-fighting program called Operation Phoenix with helping to reduce gang violence and homicides since May 2006.
That program was formed after the shooting death of another child, 11-year-old Mynesha Cranshaw, which occurred in November 2005 when gang members targeted the wrong apartment in a retaliation shooting.
Operation Phoenix uses a combination of focused, aggressive policing and collaboration with public programs and agencies to take criminals off the streets while tackling the root causes of crime, Morris said.
"There has been a host of activities that we have engaged in over the past six years that have made a profound difference in this city," he said.
At the news conference Tuesday morning, police displayed Nylah's photo in front of the police station, just six blocks south of the shooting at her home.
Kilmer urged the shooter to surrender.
"Turn yourself in. It would benefit you and it would benefit the community and this family," he said. "If not, we will find you and bring you to justice. We will be relentless."
Also contributing to this report: Staff writer Richard Brooks, rbrooks@pe.com
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