Crime Scenes in the SGV (part 1)

Tragically, another young life has ended with violence in our community. Unfortunately, shootings like the one that ended the life of the 17 year-old youth are not uncommon in this community. In the last couple of years, there have been at least three shooting incidents within 100 feet from this latest travesty. Two of those episodes have resulted in deaths. Young lives full of potential, of roads yet to be traveled...gone. With the flash of a muzzle and a lapse in judgment, La Puente loses another son, brother, and friend.

Sidewalk shrines, R.I.P. t-shirts, and carwash fundraisers (to pay for funeral expenses) have become all too common sights in our neighborhood. Regrettably common as well are, walls covered in graffiti, gang-bangers, and an alarmingly high dropout rate from our high schools; a recipe for future chaos. Lamentably, this ironic Easter murder will not be the last in La Puente. More will follow, and with them the makeshift shrines and the tears that accompany the realization that another young man will not fulfill his life’s potential.

There is always more than one victim in a gang killing, or shooting. I have personally experienced the loss of loved ones to gangs, both physical death and incarceration of a young man starting out his life being sentenced to 42yrs to life in state prison on a first conviction,which is like being dead alive. These sentences are not only lived out by the person incarcerated but also by their families. The sadness, the humiliation, the impotence, the frustration that a parent goes thru is beyond understanding unless you personally have lived thru it.
Our children and parents should be educated early on about gangs and the consequences that come from affiliating with them, laws are mandatory and simply being around gang members when a crime is committed can send a young person to prison for life, many kids are not aware of this they get brainwashed by older gangmembers who glamorize their lifestyle. I have sat across a table in state prison, during a visit and looked in to my Son's eyes and felt the pain of all that sadness and uncertainty of not knowing what is going to happen to him, will he ever be home again? will he ever eat his favorite meal? will he ever be able to walk his kids to school? will he ever be able to hold a woman in his arms? He was only 19 yrs old when he was sentenced to 42yrs to life, He didn't pull a trigger, he didn't kill anyone, but someone got hurt, thank God the victim did not die, and even though he did not do it and the victim was able to say who shot him , he was there when everything happened and because of gang affiliation he received the same sentence as the shooter. State Prison is full of young men mostly Latinos that are incarcerated and given sentences of 25, 30, 50 years to life. Alot of these young men are sent to State Prison at age 18 or 19 and are inarcerated with men that have been in prison longer than they have been alive, they don't go thru a process they are not given any programs because they are considered lifers, they don't offer them school because they just assume they wont show up. It's tragic... we give birth to beautiful babies, and create wondeful dreams for them and all of that is reaped away. There is so much to say ...I will bring my Son home...when? I don't how? How? I don't know....So many families have lost their Children to gangs and with that loss they have also lost their dreams.