Man, 19, Found Dead From Gunshot

STANTON — A 19-year-old man lay dead with a bullet in his head just minutes after midnight in an incident that Sheriff’s Department officials and neighbors say may have been related to stray gunfire from New Year’s Eve revelry.

Andrew Gabriel Vasquez of Stanton was found dead Wednesday morning in the 7000 block of Santa Gertrudes Avenue with a gunshot wound to his head, Sheriff’s Lt. Lynn Nehring said. Investigators said it remained unclear whether the shooting was accidental.

Neighbors said Vasquez fell to the ground just after a volley of gunfire rang in the new year on the street corner, a frequent haunt of gang members.

One neighbor, a 13-year-old, said sheriff’s deputies had combed the street just an hour before the death, patting down several young men for guns in anticipation of the midnight ritual of firing weapons into the sky.

Right before midnight, the youth said, a car pulled up with a trunkload of guns and the young men who make the corner their hangout armed themselves for the traditional new year’s volley.

The 13-year-old had been watching a movie at his brother’s house when he heard the burst of gunfire at midnight. When the youth looked out, he saw a group of Vasquez’s friends, who he believed were firing into the air, running away from the body, he said.

According to neighbors, investigators said they were looking into the possibilities that Vasquez was killed by someone else’s bullet, his own or one that ricocheted off a bulletproof street lamp. Gang members often try to shoot out the street lamps, residents said.

But police would neither confirm nor deny that they were pursuing any of those theories, saying only that their investigation was continuing.

Neighborhood residents described Vasquez as a joker who loved music, hanging out with friends and smoking cigarettes.

Late Wednesday, neighbors gathered around a makeshift shrine set up in Vasquez’s honor at a graffiti-scarred fire hydrant where he fell. Votive candles, roses and carnations in kitchen jars adorned the site, along with a card etched “With Loving Memories.” Friends also left a full pack of Vasquez’s favorite brand of cigarettes and an empty bottle of tequila in his honor.