17-Year-Old Charged in Deaths of 2 Youngsters : Violence: Juvenile accused in shotgun killings could be sent to prison for life under the recently approved Proposition 115.

Charges of murder with special circumstances and attempted murder were filed Tuesday against a 17-year-old youth accused of firing a shotgun into a weekend birthday party in South-Central Los Angeles, killing a 6-year-old girl and fatally wounding a 14-year-old boy who died Tuesday.

The decision to seek special circumstances of multiple murder is the first time since Proposition 115 was approved in June that a juvenile defendant has been charged in Los Angeles County under a provision that calls for life without parole upon conviction, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.

The district attorney’s office declined to identify the suspected gunman because of his age. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe Markus, head of the Compton Hard Core anti-gang unit, said authorities will seek to try the youth as an adult.

The teen-ager is scheduled to be arraigned today in Compton Juvenile Court.

Before Proposition 115 was approved, a juvenile could not be sentenced to prison for life, without possibility of parole, even if convicted in a case involving special circumstances, the spokeswoman said.

The events leading to the filing of Tuesday’s charges unfolded Saturday night when a gunman fired two shotgun blasts at party-goers in an apartment at 10500 S. Vermont Ave., killing Natalie Faine, fatally wounding Tyren Blow and grazing the arm of an 11-year-old girl.

Tyren died Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center where he had been hospitalized with a head wound and placed on a respirator.

According to police, the gunman fired two shots toward a second-story balcony outside the apartment where Norvelle and Ann Aldridge were celebrating the birthdays of several relatives and hit the three children. Natalie had come from her home in Pomona to attend the party.

About 20 minutes before the shooting, witnesses said, the gunman had kicked Natalie, traded punches with her uncle, Norvelle Aldridge, and had been ordered to leave.

The youth allegedly returned to the home and fired the fatal shots. Police arrested him at his nearby home after the shooting.