Feb. 18--The father cradled his 1-year-old daughter in his arms, screaming: "My baby's been shot! My baby's been shot!"
The little girl had a grievous head wound. She was ominously still, not moving or crying.
The sheriff's deputies didn't know how far behind the paramedics were. They decided to take her to the hospital themselves.
The father got in the back seat of the patrol car with his baby.
"We're gonna get you there. We're gonna get you there," Deputy Ricardo Eguia repeated during the high-speed ride as the father sobbed.
On a night shift patrolling Compton, just about anything can happen. In six years on the city's streets as a Los Angeles County sheriff's deputy, Eguia has seen blood on the sidewalk and heard the anguished wails of family members all too many times.
But even here, gang violence reaching into a baby's crib is not routine. The deaths of children stick with Eguia, from the toddler killed by a falling television to the baby girl named Autumn Johnson who lay motionless during the frantic journey to the hospital last Tuesday.
Autumn had recently celebrated her first birthday with cake and Minnie Mouse balloons. She was sleeping in her crib when a man stepped out of a blue Chevrolet Impala and began shooting at the converted garage where she lived. A single bullet struck her in the head.
Her father, 24-year-old Darrell Johnson, was an admitted gang member and may have been the intended target, according to investigators.
Homicide Capt. Steve Katz said Wednesday that the investigation was moving forward but he could release no new information. Authorities are offering a $75,000 reward for information leading to the identification, capture and conviction of the shooter.
"You start contemplating a lot of things because the child had nothing to do with anything," Eguia said. "They're sleeping in the crib, and now they're not. Sometimes you don't know what to make of it. Is it fair? Is it not fair? You don't understand why those things happen."
