Boy, 12, Held in Gun Death of Playmate, 10

A 12-year-old Antelope Valley boy was being held on suspicion of murder Monday in the shotgun slaying of a 10-year-old playmate.

Investigators said the older boy took his father’s shotgun Sunday afternoon, pulled back the hammer and pointed the weapon at the younger boy, who was killed instantly when the gun went off.

The victim, Thomas Hernandez, was killed by a shotgun blast to the face, Los Angeles County coroner’s investigator Dean Sebree said.

The incident took place at the home of the older boy, who was not identified, in the semi-rural Antelope Valley community of Pearblossom. Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department investigators released few details of the circumstances in the shooting and did not rule out the possibility that it had been accidental.

The boy was held on suspicion of murder because he committed “an inherently dangerous act” by cocking and pointing the shotgun at Thomas, Deputy Chris Wahla said, regardless of whether he fired intentionally.

But prosecutors were not expected to decide until today what charge they would file against the boy, who was being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall.

The parents of the suspect were out of town at the time of the shooting, and he was staying at the home of a third boy, authorities said. But the two, along with the victim, went to the 12-year-old’s home to retrieve some clothes.

Investigators said the boys climbed through a window and went to the parents’ bedroom, where the 12-year-old picked up the shotgun. The single-shot weapon has an outside hammer that must be pulled back by the thumb, investigators said.

They would not say whether the boys were playing with the gun or whether there was a struggle or argument before the shooting.

After the shooting, the 12-year-old and the third boy ran back to the latter’s home, and adults there called the Sheriff’s Department.

Several neighbors said the 12-year-old’s father frequently fired pistols and shotguns at night on the family’s large fenced-in lot in the 12500 block of Avenue V-12.

“He’s always shooting that damned gun off,” said a neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

Thomas lived about half a mile away. Penny Farris, a neighbor of the victim, said he was the youngest of four children of a single mother. Neighbors are taking up a collection to help pay for funeral expenses, Farris said.

Thomas was a “sweet kid” who was in second grade at the nearby Pearblossom School, she said.

Michelle Rosenblatt, a deputy district attorney at Sylmar Juvenile Hall, said the case had not been presented to her Monday. But she said a murder charge generally is filed when there is evidence of a homicide involving a juvenile suspect, and then further investigation is used to determine whether a lesser charge, such as manslaughter, will follow.

If the 12-year-old is charged with murder, he would not be the youngest person in Los Angeles County to ever face the charge. In 1986, a 10-year-old girl was charged with murdering an infant for whom she was baby-sitting in a Los Angeles apartment.

The girl later admitted the charge--similar to pleading guilty in adult court--and was ordered incarcerated in a state psychiatric facility, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Mitchell J. Harris.