Youth Charged With Felony Endangerment of Brother, 4 : Shooting: Prosecutors say the suspected gang member had a stolen gun that left a brother critically wounded in a game of cops and robbers with a sibling.

ORANGE â€”  A 17-year-old suspected gang member was charged Monday in Orange County Juvenile Court with felony child endangerment and possessing the stolen .357 magnum used by his little brothers Thursday in a cops and robbers game that left one critically wounded.

“It’s a very serious case, very serious charges and certainly, depending on his background, one that may be a case for trying him as an adult,� said Robin Park, the deputy district attorney specializing in juvenile gang prosecutions.

If convicted, the youth could spend six years and eight months behind bars, Park added.

The youth, said by police to be a Vietnamese gang member, left his brothers alone in the family’s Garden Grove home and his loaded revolver on his bedroom floor Thursday morning. He returned at 10:30 a.m. to find his 4-year-old brother, Charles Dolan, bleeding profusely from a bullet wound in his chest. He had pointed a plastic gun at his 5-year-old brother, who then fired what he thought was a toy gun at his brother, police said.

That gun had been stolen during a violent Feb. 22 Cypress home robbery for which the teen-ager is now a suspect, investigators said Monday.

Cypress police Monday afternoon showed some of the Cypress robbery victims a photographic “lineup� that included the suspect’s picture. And “thus far, showing those photo lineups has failed to identify the suspect� as one of three intruders who stormed into the home and terrorized a family of seven with guns and a meat cleaver, Cypress Police Lt. John Schaefer said.

The threesome had been described as Vietnamese teen-agers--two of them wearing ski masks, a third partly shielding his face with a turtleneck he tugged over his chin. They bound the adults and children with duct tape, held guns to their heads and threatened to shoot them before fleeing two hours later with cash, jewelry and weapons. Police on Monday said the family is now so terrified of gang reprisal they are trying to move.

On Monday, Charles Dolan remained in critical but stable condition in the intensive-care unit of UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where his parents and relatives took shifts at his bedside.

It was there that his oldest brother was arrested at 3:30 p.m. Friday by Garden Grove police investigators an hour after boasting to The Times that “I’m a major player in this.� The slightly built teen-ager refused to elaborate without first checking with his parents.

Police said the little boys were alone playing cops and robbers in the teen-ager’s bedroom when one of them found the loaded gun on the floor by a bed. The 5-year-old opened the gun chamber, saw two bullets, closed it and continued playing--unaware that they were real, Garden Grove Police Sgt. Mark Byrne said. Charles was felled with a single bullet that pierced his chest and exited his back. His identical twin brother was also at the house but it was not clear if he witnessed the shooting.

On Wednesday, the teen-ager will appear before a juvenile court judge for a hearing on whether he should be released to his parents or remain in custody, prosecutor Park said. A background investigation will probably be ordered to find out if the youth has had previous arrests.

Park, who filed documents Monday charging the teen-ager with the two felonies, said she will also request a probation department investigation to determine whether the youth should be tried as an adult.

“We’re going to review the police reports, and (probation officers) will do a background check of his associates, whether he was associated with criminal activity before, whether we’ve tried to rehabilitate him before,� Park said.

A report of that investigation must be completed in 13 court days, she said. “We need to check prior contact with the police, we need to verify that there have been prior contacts with the justice system . . . and how serious those prior contacts were.�

If he is tried and convicted as an adult, she said, “on these charges that we have before us right now, the pending charges, he could serve six years and eight months in state prison.� If tried and convicted as a juvenile, she said, he would serve the same time but in a California Youth Authority facility.