‘Brazen assault in the middle of the day’ leaves a boy dead, an LA neighborhood shaken
LOS ANGELES — Alexander Alvarado did not live to see his teens. A blast of gunfire Monday afternoon saw to that.
Had he made it to Christmas week, Alexander would have turned 13. Instead, the boy was shot to death outside of an elementary school in Wilmington, a port neighborhood filled with industry, working-class families and gang problems that ebb and flow like the tides.
His stepmother was injured too. A fourth grade girl also received a gunshot wound in the late-afternoon incident; she was hit by a stray bullet as she watched her brother play kickball on the playground of Wilmington Park Elementary during an after-school program called Beyond the Bell.
Law enforcement officials have not identified the woman, who is in her 30s, or the 9-year-old girl. Both were taken
