Boy Charged In Shooting That Left Girl Paralyzed
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Hennepin County Attorney's Office announced they have filed charges against the alleged shooter who left a girl paralyzed.
The attorney's office announced Friday they have forwarded criminal charges against Marlon Alejandro Lozano-Montano. He is charged with first-degree assault committed for the benefit of a gang, aiding and abetting assault, drive-by shooting and aiding and abetting a drive-by shooting.
He is currently 17 years old, but was only 16 last November when Guadalupe Galeno-Hernandez was shot in the throat while walking with family to their aunt's home, near East 34th Street and Chicago Avenue South.
According to court records, Lozano-Montano, a member of the Surenos 13 gang, drove by in a car and stood up "out of a sunroof." He yelled "VL Killers" before firing a round at a group he thought was wearing "baggy clothes like a gang."
"We (were) just walking, and there was no gang there, we just went to the store because we was going to throw a party," said Guadalupe.
The bullet went through Guadalupe's spinal cord and paralyzed her, likely for life.
Earlier this month, charges were filed against 19-year-old Casey Michelle Walters, who was at the wheel of the car involved in the drive by shooting, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the criminal complaint, Walters admitted to police that she was the driver of the car during the drive-by shooting. She said there were three other men in the car that day, one in the front and two in the back.
The criminal complaint against Lozano-Montano says he was sitting in the back of the car and, when Walters pulled up alongside Galeno-Hernandez and her family, emerged through the sunroof with a gun.
He allegedly shouted slogans taken to be gang-related at the group and fired once before telling Walters to drive away.
Investigators later determined that Lozano-Montano is affiliated with the gang Surenos 13. The charges suggest he shot at the group believing them to be members of a rival gang.
A detention hearing for Lozano-Montano was scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Guadalupe learned of the charges on her 78th day in a hospital bed, and said she wasn't ever sure if this day would come.
"It's good they find him, because he was a bad man," she told WCCO.
The charges are little consolation for Guadalupe's mother Hilda, who says the charges can't heal her daughter.
But somehow, Guadalupe manages to look forward.
"My mom said to do my best," said Guadalupe. "Thanks everybody out there praying for me and helping me."
Investigators say Lozano-Montano was already in juvenile detention for attacking someone with a crowbar. They plan to try him as an adult.
Guadalupe says she hopes police find two more people that were also in the car with him that night.
