Pubdate: Thu, 14 Sep 2000
Source: Modesto Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Modesto Bee
Contact:  http://www.modbee.com/help/letters.html
Website: http://www.modbee.com/
Author: Ty Phillips

http://www.modbee.com/metro/story/0,1113,194747,00.html

OFFICER KILLS BOY, POLICE CALL SHOOTING AN ACCIDENT

An 11-year-old Modesto boy was fatally shot early Wednesday morning
when police SWAT team officers on a federal narcotics sweep raided his
parents' home. Police said the shooting was an accident.

Alberto Sepulveda, a seventh-grader at Prescott Senior Elementary
School, was pronounced dead in his home at 2524 McAdoo Ave., just east
of Highway 99 in the north Modesto neighborhood commonly known as
Highway Village. He died from one shotgun round to the back, Police
Chief Roy Wasden said.

Wasden would not give any other details of the shooting or raid, not
even where in the small house the shooting took place. He said details
will not be available until investigations have been completed.

"Our entire department is in shock," Wasden said. "And our heartfelt
sympathy goes out to the family of the child, and the officers who
were involved in this tragic incident."

The shot came from officer David Hawn, whose weapon accidentally
discharged during the raid, Wasden said. Hawn, a 21-year department
veteran, has served on the SWAT team for 18 1/2 years. Following
department policy, Hawn was placed on paid leave.

Hawn and six other officers had been ordered to enter the McAdoo
Avenue house and secure it so federal agents could serve drug warrants.

The boy's father, Moises Sepulveda, was arrested and booked on charges
of methamphetamine trafficking. The boy's mother and two siblings,
ages 8 and 14, also were home during the raid.

Officers knocked on the door at 6:16 a.m. Five minutes later, a call
went out for an ambulance and Fire Department personnel.

Police swarmed in and out of the house all day, and Stanislaus County
coroner's deputies did not remove the boy's body until after 2 p.m.

As is routine with officer-involved shootings, separate
investigations are being conducted by the district attorney's office,
the Police Department's Crimes Against Persons Unit and Professional
Standards Unit, and the city attorney's office.

"Our preliminary investigation indicates that the shooting was
accidental," Wasden said at his first major press conference since
becoming chief Aug. 7.

The department could not immediately provide a list of police
shootings, but no one could remember a case in which an officer had
killed a child.

As some officers worked inside the house, others stood grim-faced
outside, talking in small groups. Neighbors stood in front of their
homes, wondering what had happened on their street.

At 2524 McAdoo, a potted plant had been tipped off the porch and onto
the lawn. A police shield rested on the porch.

Neighbors leaned around yellow police tape, trying to sneak a look
inside the home.

"It's a war zone all around this village," said Charley Ney, 44, who
lives near McAdoo. "It gets crazy sometimes."

Ney leaned on a fence several doors from the crime scene, talking with
neighbors Bill Blair, 41, and Lloyd Little, 55. The men knew someone
had been shot in a drug raid, but they had no idea it was a boy.

Blair said drugs are nothing new to Highway Village. He has lived in
the area all his life. The men have been told late-night traffic at
2524 McAdoo is common, but it was not something they watched closely.

"When you live out here, there's always something going on," Blair
said. "When you drive around, you don't look too much at people like
that. You don't watch them because they're watching you."

Wednesday night, neighbors stood at the edge of driveways and lawns,
swapping stories of concern, shock and grief.

"I didn't ever think anything like this could happen at that house, to
that family," former next-door neighbor Nadia Chuca, 23, said. "He was
just at the wrong place at the wrong time; it's just sad that this
happened to an 11-year-old. ... I saw him grow up."

The Sepulveda family has lived at the McAdoo Avenue home for about
five years. Fourteen-year-old Melissa Gold lived across the street
until recently.

She said Alberto taught bicycle tricks to her 9-year-old brother,
Brian.

"My little brother, he's been sad all day. He tried to ask me why the
cop shot him. I didn't know how to say it in sign language," she said.
"My brother's deaf."

Sam Climber walked his 9-year-old son, Sam Jr., in front of the
Sepulveda house to try to make sense of Wednesday's shooting.

His son, he said, played daily with Alberto.

"We would play hide-and-go-seek, ride our bikes and have water balloon
fights," the young Climber said. "I sort of could not believe it; I
didn't think kids could get shot."

Counseling services will be provided today for students at Chrysler
and Prescott schools, said Judy French, a secretary in the Stanislaus
Union School District. Alberto attended Chrysler last year.

Wednesday's raid was part of a drug trafficking investigation that
began in January 1999, said Robert Dey, a special agent with the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency.

He said authorities had identified a Stanislaus County drug ring that
was making and selling large quantities of methamphetamine.
Wednesday's action involved 14 simultaneous raids at houses around the
county.

Officers arrested 14 people, Dey said, and were seeking four
others.

SWAT teams called upon for Wednesday's operation were from the
Sacramento and San Francisco offices of the FBI, the DEA, the
Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department and the Lodi Police Department.

"With the violent nature of methamphetamine traffickers, we try to
take all the precautions to avoid anyone getting hurt. This is a
tragic situation for all parties involved," Dey said.

Bee staff writer Ty Phillips can be reached at 578-2331.

Bee staff writer Crystal Carreon contributed to this report. She can
be reached at 578-2347.
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