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UNION CITY — One day after two boys were killed in an explosive hail of gunfire here, a somber calm draped the sleepy Decoto neighborhood Sunday.
Family members, friends, and neighbors of the 11- and 14-year-old boys came to the Searles Elementary School parking lot where the two were fatally shot early Saturday morning to pay respects, gathering in front of a makeshift memorial of flowers and prayer candles, some aligned in the shape of a cross.
As they held a vigil for the boys late Sunday afternoon, pieces of broken auto glass still littered the lot near where police say the boys were sitting in a minivan when the shooting broke out.
“Both of them were such a young age,” Shirley Sedano, a family member of one of the boys said Sunday afternoon.
“What can an 11- and 14-year-old do to somebody so bad to have 15 to 20 bullet holes in a van?,” she asked.
“If they’re trying to get back at somebody, why target the kids? They’re just starting to live their life.”
Some family members stood or squatted near the memorial Sunday, crying, embracing each other, and welcoming others to share their grief.
A post to the New Haven Unified School District Facebook page, which has since been deleted, said Saturday that one of the victims was a student at Itliong-Vera Cruz Middle School in Union City. District spokesman John Mattos said the name of the school was “posted in error” on the website, but was accurate.
School Superintendent John Thompson said in a separate statement the other victim was a former student of the district. Mattos declined to say where the victim last attended school.
Union City police said callers to 911 reported hearing gunfire in the area of Sherman Drive and Colgate Drive at 1:26 a.m. When officers arrived, authorities said, they found two boys shot in the parking lot. The older boy died at the scene, and the younger child died en route to a trauma center.
Security camera video obtained by this news organization shows what appear to be more than a dozen muzzle flashes cutting through the darkness of the parking lot early Saturday.
“It’s a tragedy,” Frances Michel Lucero said Sunday, after kneeling and praying for the two boys’ souls.
She lives nearby, and said she didn’t know the boys personally, but she and her husband felt compelled to come and pray for them, and drop off flowers.
“We want to lift them up to go to heaven,” she said.
“It’s so senseless for children to just be murdered. I don’t know what the circumstances were, but this is terrible,” she said, adding that she feels the neighborhood is generally safe.
Two friends of one of the victims, who attended school with him since kindergarten, said they were taking the loss hard. One friend said he used to feel safe in his neighborhood, but is beginning to worry after finding out a friend had been gunned down.
Richard Manuel is a resident who has lived in the neighborhood since 1992, and has always felt safe there.
Manuel said he was in bed watching television early morning Saturday when he heard the loud succession of gunfire, and at first wasn’t sure if it was fireworks or gunshots.
But as the pops continued, it became clear to him. “That would sound different if it was fireworks,” he said.
“I didn’t move, because I was scared. I stayed in bed,” he said.
He said he often sees people hanging out in the parking lot of the school on weekend nights, and hopes the school district will install a locking fence so people can’t loiter there, and hopefully, other tragedies can be avoided.
“We’re wondering why it happened here,” Manuel said.
No arrests have been made in the double homicide. Police say they have not identified a motive, but believe the shooting could be gang related. Crime scene investigators on Saturday collected shell casings and other evidence from the parking lot.
Police are investigating the possibility that an earlier shooting may be related to the Saturday morning slayings. About 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 20, two men were shot and wounded near the intersection of 8th and C streets in Union City.
The men were treated at a local hospital and released. Police cautioned that no evidence so far has linked the two incidents.
Meanwhile, Sunday afternoon at the vigil held adjacent to the parking lot where the two boys were shot, people shared fond memories about the boys, including how one of them loved McDonald’s.
Community leaders from councilmembers to former school board members spoke to the dozens gathered to honor the boys, telling them to connect with each other and ensure kids are kept safe, stay in school, and get home safe each night.
Jaime Patiño, a councilman in Union City, said the vigil was an important moment to help the community heal.
“There will be other memorials for the kids and their families, but right now the community needs to heal,” he said.
“This is something that just doesn’t happen. And so it was very important that we get together as soon as possible and get the community together.”
Patiño said police are treating this case as a “top priority” and even getting assistance from other agencies for neighborhood patrols and with the investigation.
“Anybody that knows anything, please, call Union City police. It may not seem like much, but let them know so we can get these people,” he said after the vigil Sunday.
“Whether they were up to good or not, they were kids,” Patiño said.
“They were somebody’s children.”
Staff writers Nico Savidge and Louis Hansen contributed to this report.