A preliminary hearing was scheduled Thursday for a 46-year-old Long Beach man charged with five counts of attempted murder in the shooting of a 4-year-old innocent bystander during a gang fight.
James Leland Landrum Sr., fled the state immediately after the July 22, shooting - which left 4-year-old Josue Hercules in a coma and fighting for his life for several days - and was detained at a U.S. Border Patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas two days later.
The 4-year-old was not the
intended target when Landrum Sr. allegedly pulled out a gun and began
firing into a crowd, police and prosecutors said. Witnesses told officers a man came to the neighborhood, in
the 2100 block of Earl Avenue, at about 7 p.m. and got into an argument
with a group of males and females. The argument turned physical, and at one point the suspect pulled out a gun and opened fire, police said.
Josue
was playing with his older sister and some others when the shooting
broke out. The kids tried to flee but the 4-year-old wasn't fast
enough, and one of several rounds struck him in the back of the head. The bullet slammed into the child's skull, near his neck,
and skirted his brain, lodging behind his forehead and near his left
eye, his mother said. After several days of waiting and not knowing if he would
pull through, the little boy awoke and appeared to suffer no lasting
effects other than a massive scar that skirts the back of his skull. The charge filed against Landrum Sr. alleges the shooting
was a willful, deliberate and premeditated attempted murder of the
child as well as four others who were in the line of fire that day and Landrum carried out the shooting to benefit his gang. Each attempted murder count carries a possible 25
years to life sentence, and if the defendant is convicted on all
counts he faces a lifetime in state prison without parole. Landrum was ordered Thursday to return to the Long Beach Superior Court on Feb. 1 for a preliminary hearing in Dept. 3 at 8:30 a.m.
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