A 3-year-old girl, fatally shot as her family arrived home after a Sunday afternoon trip to McDonalds, was intentionally targeted by a teenage gang member who fired at point-blank range, police said Monday.
The announcement, which came as detectives sought the public's help in finding the killer, prompted new anxiety in the Southwest Los Angeles neighborhood of Baldwin Village, which has struggled with gang violence for decades.
Though police said they don't know the motive for the girl's slaying, some parents expressed fear that the Oct. 1 shooting was a twisted gang initiation gone tragically wrong.
A joint task force of the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI, which has been investigating Kaitlyn Avila's death, arrested one suspect. But Jonathan Banks, the 17-year-old suspected of pulling the trigger, is still being sought.
LAPD Deputy Chief Charles Beck said the killer approached Kaitlyn, her father and her 6-year-old sister as they were getting out of the car outside their apartment building.
He shot and wounded Cesar Avila, a glass worker, erroneously believing that he was a member of a rival gang. He then aimed his gun at Kaitlyn and shot her once in the chest, police said.
"This wasn't an accident or case of her getting caught in the fire," Beck said. "He intended to kill her. This was callous killing. It is beyond even what gangsters consider usual."
Authorities said they pieced together the chain of events after interviewing people who witnessed the shooting, as well as Cesar Avila and Kaitlyn's sister Kassey, who was unhurt in the attack.
The shooting occurred at 2:45 p.m. on a block of densely packed apartment buildings. Several people were outside and saw the attack, detectives said.
Beck said Kaitlyn's death underscored the continuing gang problems in Baldwin Village, a neighborhood of less than a square mile between La Brea Avenue and Crenshaw Boulevard off Coliseum Street.
The revelations stunned residents there.
One mother, who asked that her name not be used, suggested that the shooter was trying to "earn his stripes" and gain respect from gang members.
"I don't even feel safe walking down the street," said a 20-year-old woman who was holding her 5-year-old son's hand.
Another mother, Joy Daniels, 17, carried her 1-year-old daughter home from day care, across the street from a memorial for Kaitlyn that was overflowing with teddy bears, flowers and candles.
