Toddler Shot as Gang Members Fire at Uncle : Violence: Two-year-old boy in guarded condition after being critically wounded during confrontation

Less than two weeks after 12-year-old Cristal Anguiano was shot in the heart when she inadvertently walked into a gun battle between rival gangs, a 2-year-old boy was shot in the head as he was carried by his uncle during a confrontation with alleged gang members.

Toddler Daniel Jones was taken off the critical list Thursday after extensive surgery at Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center. Hospital officials said it probably would be several weeks before his long-term prognosis is known.

Police said that Jones’ uncle, 19-year-old Gary Johnson, was cornered in an apartment courtyard on 71st Street in the Hyde Park area of Los Angeles on Wednesday evening by five rival gang members. Johnson saw his nephew nearby, grabbed the toddler, and began running up the stairs when the gang members opened fired with handguns, investigators said.

Johnson was struck in the upper torso, and one of the bullets hit Daniel in the head. Johnson, whom police described as a gang member, was treated for a minor wound at Martin Luther King hospital and released. Following surgery, Daniel was placed in the hospital’s intensive care unit where he was listed in stable but guarded condition.

“These gangs don’t care who they shoot or who they hit,� said Lt. Bruce Hagerty. “What’s happening in Los Angeles is that these gang members feel very comfortable about opening fire whenever they feel like it.�

Down the walkway from the two-story apartment where Daniel lived, a bullet had torn out a piece of stucco and a stray round had shattered a window. Yellow tape used by police to seal off the crime scene had been ripped and tossed into water puddles.

Police said they are searching for suspects and asked any witnesses to provide information about the shooting.

The incident came about six hours after Cristal Anguiano was released from Martin Luther King Jr. hospital.

Authorities called Cristal heroic after carrying her 2-year-old brother, Rafael, to safety even though she had been shot. The fifth-grader had taken only a few steps outside her South Central home Feb. 2 when an errant bullet struck her as she walked with her brother to buy ice cream. Two men and a juvenile have been charged with attempted murder in the case.

“These cases are not related in any way except that they both involved little, innocent kids who were shot by gang members,� Hagerty said.