Bridging the gap

Ellen McCarty

FOUNTAIN VALLEY -- Roger Steven-Augustine Flores was killed Feb. 7,

when a bullet punctured his lung on Ward Street.

The police say the shot was self-inflicted; that a gun accidentally

discharged as the 19-year-old man rode his bike.

The Flores family members say they believe Roger was accidentally

shot, but not by his own hand. They believe he was killed by gang

members.

The differences of opinion show just how wide a gulf separates the

authorities and the community they’re charged with protecting.

“If you’re raised not to trust the police, you’re not going to,”

Police Capt. Rod Gillman said. “We can’t change the past, we can only

treat others today the way we’d want to be treated.”

It’s in the community’s best interest to cooperate with the police

during an investigation, he said, or criminals will continue to roam

free.

Police say there was a 200-foot trail of blood that began where Flores

was shot that ended where he was found sitting in front of a church, and

that trail indicates he was not alone when he was shot, Fountain Valley

Police Capt. Rod Gilman said.

“He was helped by his friends,” Gillman said. “A lot of people knew

what happened but didn’t tell what happened.”

Investigators interviewed about 20 people in connection with the

crime, but it was difficult to get the truth, he added.

The night of the shooting, friends of Flores stopped by to say that a

gang was tagging in the neighborhood, his mother, Lucy Flores recalled.

He headed off with his friends, she said, and that was the last time

she saw him alive.

“My son wasn’t an angel,” she said. “He drank and he did drugs, but he

was beginning to turn his life around. He didn’t deserve to die.”

The police did not notify the public or the press that this was a

gang-related shooting.

“It’s a Catch-22,” Managing Dist. Atty. Claudia Silbar said. “When the

media reports gang activity, the gang members feel a false sense of

pride.”

But if the presence of gangs is hidden from the wider community, there

is a greater danger: public ignorance, Silbar said.

Residents should know where gang members live, so they won’t wander

naively into the cross-fire and so they can keep an eye out for

suspicious activity, Silbar said.

“Fountain Valley is still a nice place to live,” Joseph Ramirez said

after his son was paralyzed by a drive-by shooting on Circulo de Villa on

May 22. “We just hope the gangs will eventually go away.”