Teen Shooting Victim Was Straight-A Student

A teenager shot to death near the Washington Square neighborhood was identified by relatives Monday as Dylan Urquiza, a straight-A student at Costa Mesa’s Back Bay High School who played on the school’s basketball team.

The 16-year-old Costa Mesa freshman was shot to death Sunday by a lone gunman who demanded to know his gang affiliation before firing at least one round at Urquiza’s neck. Police said Urquiza, who had been walking with a cousin near Civic Center Drive and Bristol Street, tried to explain that he was not a gang member.

“As he turned around to walk away, he was shot,” said Eddie Urquiza, the youth’s 21-year-old cousin. “He was not and never has been a gang member or anything.”

Urquiza made his way to a relative’s home about a block away to get help. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died following surgery a few hours later, investigators said.

The 24-year-old cousin who was with Urquiza when he was shot was not injured. Relatives asked that his identity not be revealed for fear of gang retaliation.

Detectives said neither Urquiza nor his cousin had gang ties and that police are seeking clues to the gunman’s identity.

The shooting occurred at 2 a.m. Sunday after a family get-together for a niece of Urquiza.

“We all had just come back from a birthday party,” said Rigo Urquiza, 41, the victim’s uncle. “He and his cousin got hungry and decided to go get something to eat at Jack-In-The-Box. They were offered a ride, but they declined.

“They said they wanted to walk.”

On the way back from the fast-food restaurant, Urquiza and his cousin saw a car pull in front of them, the cousin who had accompanied the teen said. A man stepped out and following a short confrontation, opened fire. The assailant then fled in the car, the cousin said.

Rigo Urquiza said he heard gun shots from his home and ran outside, anxiously looking for his relatives out of fear that they had been harmed. He saw Dylan Urquiza--his shirt bloodied--followed by his cousin on their way back to the house.

“He was a young man just waiting for his life to happen,” Rigo Urquiza said.

Urquiza grew up in Costa Mesa but moved to Monroe, La., with his family about two years ago. With his parents’ permission, he returned to Costa Mesa seven months ago to be with his cousins and childhood friends, Eddie Urquiza said. He enrolled in an alternative program at Back Bay High because he had signed up a month after the school year began, Principal Carole Castaldo said.

At Back Bay High, Urquiza earned straight A’s and played on the school’s first basketball team, established last year as part of a national basketball league that includes other alternative high school teams, Castaldo said. The team earned a spot in the league’s regional semi-final playoffs, scheduled for this weekend, she said.

“He talked about having a career so that he would be able to raise a family,” Castaldo said. “It’s not often you see that kind of maturity from a kid. He was a good student. . . . There are about 100 students at this school. Most were in tears today.”

Urquiza enjoyed spending time with his family, his cousins and his pet hamsters, relatives said. The teenager called his parents in Louisiana at least once a week and always found time to play with his nieces and nephews, relatives said.

During his free time, the ninth-grader helped his legal guardian, Ramiro Urquiza Sr., at a landscaping business and talked about going to college to study mechanical engineering so that he could work on cars.

“He loved cars,” said Eddie Urquiza, who last saw his cousin Saturday afternoon when both assisted with a landscaping project.

“He was going to enroll in an automotive class. . . . He also was studying from a little booklet to try to get his driving permit.”

Urquiza decorated his room, converted from Ramiro Urquiza’s family television room, with photos of his parents, his nephews and his friends.

“He was really, really close to all of us,” Eddie Urquiza said. “We all miss him. He was always smiling and joking.”

Relatives said funeral plans were pending but that Urquiza’s parents had talked about holding a viewing service in Orange County and transporting the body to Louisiana for burial.