Boy shot in the head fights for his life

TORRANCE At this time doctors have released very few details of the 6-year-old boy's medical condition.

There is not word yet of the long term affect the injury will have on him. His family says that he is fighting for his life.

"He is a good little kid and he is innocent. This happened for no reason," said Honey, victim's cousin.

Lavarea Elvy is alive, but is in critical condition. Doctors at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center drained fluid from his brain Thursday, but were not able to remove the bullet from his head.

Gang violence that sent gunfire through his family's SUV was denounced by the family through a spokesman.

"Everybody standing over here has a niece, a nephew, a son, a daughter or a child. Our children don't have a chance to live in their society without facing this time of violence," said Eddie Jones, L.A. City Rights Association.

LAPD arrested two alleged members of a Latino gang for the shooting in Harbor Gateway.

Their names have not yet been released, but one of them is reportedly listed in a gang injunction approved earlier this week.

"I am so happy that the LAPD, starting with Chief Bratton all the way down, made a very speedy arrest in this shooting," said Jones.

Questions persist over a possible racial motive. The crime sounds familiar to the mother of Cheryl Green. She was the 14-year-old girl who was killed a year and a half ago in what the district attorney determined to be a brown on black hate crime.

"They decided that day that they wanted to kill a black person. My daughter was that one," said Charlene Lovett, Cheryl Green's mother.

Ernesto Alcarez and Jonathan Fajardo face murder trials in the next two months. Charlene Lovett after more than a year of trying to heal race relations joins the family of Lavarea Elvy frustrated by the upswing of violence claiming kids as victims.

"What are we suppose to do as mothers? Just take it," said Lovett.

"Just like we had Cheryl Green last year when we marched over there for peace, now we are asking for peace for 6-year-old Lavarea," said Jones.

Mayor Villaraigosa is calling for the hiring of at least 400 more officers in the next two years to push the police department total to 10,000.

 

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