A few days after a bullet from a gang shooting tore into an Angelino Heights home last month, killing a 9-year-old girl, police announced with much fanfare that they had arrested the two gunmen.
But the suspects -- Cesar Zamora, 23, and Steven Castanon, 20 -- are now out of jail and back in their old neighborhood, to the dismay of residents who held candlelight vigils to memorialize Charupha Wongwisetsiri.
Police released the men without filing charges after determining that Zamora or Castanon fired the shot that killed Charupha in self-defense when a rival gang member pulled up in a car and tried to shoot them in front of their apartment complex next to Charupha's home.
The situation has shaken and angered residents of Angelino Heights, a diverse neighborhood with commanding views of downtown Los Angeles. The area includes rows of grand Victorian houses restored by television writers and downtown office workers side-by-side with apartments housing working-class families.
"They made it big news when they arrested them and then they quietly let them go," community activist James McHargue said. "I think it is outrageous if the prosecutors don't charge the people who fired these guns."
Bob and Patti Good, who helped organize a candlelight vigil for the girl, can't understand why the two shooters are back on the street.
All of a sudden, the men "who gunned down that little girl" are back, said Bob Good, 62, a title insurance officer. "They are looking for him and he's looking for them. Is there going to be more violence now?
"Usually if someone gets killed it's a bad guy, but now it's an innocent party. You cannot get more innocent than a little girl, and people identify with that."
Authorities insist that they are simply following the law.
"Evidence was presented that it was self-defense, and we did not feel we could charge the two people at this time," said Jane Robison of the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Instead, police detectives say they now are trying to build a murder case against the man who tried to shoot at Zamora and Castanon -- even though his gun jammed and he didn't get off a shot.
He caused "this horrible event, and we hope to make a strong case against him in this murder," LAPD Lt. Paul Vernon said.
Legal experts said the circumstances of the shooting would make it difficult to build a murder case against Zamora and Castanon.
