Construction worker, 17, shot dead in his bed - Cousin who shared apartment believed to be in Sureño

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/29/5 | Demian Bulwa

[SmithL]

Edgar Martinez's father borrowed money last year from a friend in Antioch and paid for the 17-year-old to come north from Mexico. The teen worked in Bay Area housing construction, sending money to his mother and brother in Michoacan.

But late Sunday night, a gunman wildly sprayed a dozen or more bullets into the small apartment building on West 20th Street where the father and son lived with three or four cousins.

One of the rounds passed through the wall and killed Martinez as he slept next to his father, whom neighbors said had cried and begged his son to wake up.

Antioch police Monday were following several leads, including whether the attackers had shown up a day earlier with golf clubs and whether the shooting was related to gang violence between the rival Norteños and Sureños.

The pervasive rivalry was blamed in a fatal shooting in December in neighboring Pittsburg. But officials could not say whether Martinez was a gang member.

[SmithL]

How much cheap labor can we afford?

[Wally_Kalbacken]

The key here is in the journalist's attempt to fit this into the mold of innocence vs. criminality. So the fellow working is the innocent and the gunman is the criminal. In reality there is criminality in both and unless we recognize the criminality of the illegal workers, we're not going to stop the triggerman - it's all part of a process which brings excessive numbers of people into this country from a culture which is radically different. They are used to a corrupt system of law enforcement in their home - they bring this perspective the the United States and they are corrupting our civic perspective in the process.

He played basketball, could do difficult tricks on a BMX bike and had recently bought a used car.

Great...and he comes with a boatload of externalities that, multiplied at the current rate of illegal immigration, will bring this country down.

[nothingnew]

Guess he should'a stayed in Mejico.

FMCDH(BITS)

[nothingnew]

Guess he should'a stayed in Mejico.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Fast1]

They should Keep out!!

[NRA2BFree]

It's too bad the kid got killed. Obviously, he would have been better off had he stayed in Mexico. That said, now that the cops know his dad and cousins are living in the US illegally, I sure hope they round them up and send them back to Mexico.

[ikka]

Just doing the ghetto-living, altercations at 2AM, three to a bedroom living that Americans won't do.

[DumpsterDiver]

More news, more crime ping

[Texas Eagle]

Antioch police Monday were following several leads, including whether the attackers had shown up a day earlier with golf clubs and whether the shooting was related to gang violence between the rival Norteños and Sureños.

Nahhhhhhh. These people are pure as the wind-driven snow. They just come here to do the jobs whitey won't do and to pay taxes.