CONVICTED GANG BANGER'S GUN SHOOTS TOT - GUN OWNERS TO BE BLAMED

Tot, 2, shoots boy with uncle's gun
Pistol's owner faces firearms charges as DCFS investigates

By Andrew L. Wang and Ofelia Casillas, Tribune staff reporters. Staff reporter James Janega wrote this report

October 11, 2005

Hours after the shooting, the 2-year-old used his limited vocabulary to try to describe what happened.

"Pow, pow," he said to his mother, and then spoke his friend's name. Police said he shot and wounded his 4-year-old playmate while under the care of the 2-year-old's grandmother.

The grandmother had been caring for three children Monday morning and was busy with the youngest of them, an infant, when she heard a popping noise in the next room. The 2-year-old went to his grandmother upset, prompting her to investigate.

Police said the 4-year-old was shot in the right side and was in stable but guarded condition in the University of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital Monday night.

The 2-year-old's uncle, Juan Ramirez, 21, who lives downstairs in the two-flat in the 2200 block of South Drake Avenue, was charged with unlawful use of a weapon by a felon, felony defacement of a firearm and misdemeanor "firearm child protection," said police news affairs Officer Carlos Herrera. The weapon's serial number had been scraped away, he said.

The uncle's family said he has spent years on the fringes of gang life in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.

"There's no question who shot the weapon," Herrera said. It was the 2-year-old, he said.

But the boy's uncle, who has a history of felonies, owns the gun and shouldn't have had it because of his record. "You don't have to necessarily be the shooter or have the weapon in your hand to be charged," Herrera said.

The Illinois Department of Children & Family Services is investigating the grandmother for possible neglect, a spokeswoman said.

How the weapon got into the hands of a toddler is unclear, the Ramirez family said.

The extended family lives in the brick apartment building. Ramirez shares the basement and ground floor apartment with his mother, Rosa Aguilar, 58, the grandmother who was baby-sitting Monday.

Family members said Aguilar often looked after her grandchildren and the 4-year-old, who lives across the street. Neighbors on the block recall her leading packs of children to the park or welcoming them to play at the house in the summertime.

"Everyone calls her `Dona Rosa'" out of respect, said Fanny Diego, 19, who lives on the block. "We don't have a community center, so a lot of [children] go there to hang out."

Aguilar's daughter-in-law, son Silvestre Ramirez and their two children share the house with her, said the daughter-in-law, who declined to give her full name when interviewed at her apartment.

The uncle, Juan Ramirez, has had a troubled history with the law since he was at least 17. He was found guilty of robbery and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon in separate incidents in 2001. He got two years' probation for the robbery, according to court records.

But the same year, he had run-ins with police over disorderly conduct and contributing to the delinquency of other minors, the court records show.

"He is involved in the gangs," the mother of the 2-year-old and infant said in an interview Monday. "He tries to turn his life around. He cares a lot about his nephew. He is very protective, but he sometimes has some issues."

Diego, a former classmate, said Ramirez was known as bright at Farragut High School, but said he dropped out in his third year. His gang affiliations were well known.

"It's typical here. If you're not in gangs, you're not cool," Diego said. "He was just ... hanging out with the wrong crew."

The 2-year-old's mother said she left her 2-year- and 10-month-old sons with Rosa Aguilar and went to work. The 2-year-old, who has big brown eyes, was dressed in a basketball T-shirt, she said.

Aguilar was caring for the infant while the 4-year-old played nearby with the 2-year-old, the younger boy's mother said. Where the boys found the gun was unknown, she said.

After the gun went off, the boy came to his grandmother. "He was very scared," his mother said.

Police said they responded to a call of a person shot in the home at 8:23 a.m.

Maria Huerta, 26, who lives across the street, said she saw the 4-year-old in a paramedic's arms, "carrying him like a baby." Juan Ramirez was brought out in handcuffs, she said.

Ramirez faces a bond hearing Tuesday morning.

The mother said it was hard for her to understand exactly what had happened, because her son was too young to explain.

"Then he was telling me, `boom, boom,'" the mother said. "I know `boom, boom' was a gun."

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ocasillas@tribune.com,

alwang@tribune.com,

jjanega@tribune.com


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