Pasadena Boy Fatally Wounded By Stray Bullet; Investigation Continuing

Crime scene investigation, police do not cross, yellow boundary tape

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PASADENA (CNS) - Pasadena police continued their efforts to find the person responsible for killing a 13-year-old boy who was shot by a stray bullet as he played video games in his bedroom.

The shooting occurred at 6:12 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of North Raymond Avenue, near Mountain Street, when a stray bullet was shot through a window, according to Pasadena police Cmdr. Mark Goodman.

Arriving officers performed CPR on the boy and paramedics rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Goodman said.

The boy was identified by family members as Iran Moreno-Balvaneda, ABC7 reported. The coroner's office has not released the boy's name.

No arrests have been reported, city spokeswoman Lisa Derderian told City News Service on Monday afternoon.

The target of Saturday's shooting was unknown, but it did not appear to be the boy, Goodman said.

Investigators had no suspect information but were asking the public to come forward with information.

``If you know anything about this tragic incident, or you saw anything, please, please, please come forward to the Pasadena Police Department,'' Goodman said, according to ABC7. ``We will keep your information anonymous. What we want to do is find the people who are responsible for this tragic incident and bring them to justice.''

Mayor Victor Gordo in a Monday afternoon news conference called for increased police presence in the wake of the shooting.

``We can't continue to take the same approach to public safety in this city or in the region and expect different results,'' he said.

``It's not too long ago that we called on more resources for the police department, that we said to the police department, 'we need more enforcement, we need more officers on the street.' And I'm here to renew those calls, to say that we should and we must do things differently.''

Pasadena City Councilman John J. Kennedy implored the shooter to come forward.

``To the person who thought so little of all of us to fire a gun in our neighborhood and take this young life: The consequence of your thoughtless action is grief and suffering beyond words,'' Kennedy said. ``Turn yourself in.''

Kennedy also urged anyone who was with or knows the shooter to turn them in.

Multiple shots were fired, but police did not know whether the shooter fired from a vehicle or was on foot.

``We're looking at all the available video that we have,'' Pasadena police Chief John Perez said Sunday at a news conference at City Hall. ``There's so much we have to look at because there's hours and hours of it... We don't just look at the time it occurred. We go from before and after and we pull so much from so many places, it takes a lot of time. And so we still have to go back today and knock on doors and try to find more.''

Gordo added that pursuing the suspect was a matter of community safety.

`` Nobody in this city has the right to fire a weapon unlawfully in the city of Pasadena,'' he said.

Anyone with information about the case was urged to call Pasadena police at 626-744-4241 or provide information anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or http://lacrimestoppers.org.

People can also provide tips with a smart phone by downloading the P3 Tips mobile app.


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