Friend who held wounded 14-year-old: 'I just knew he was going to die'

The rain had spoiled the vigil for 14-year-old Ricardo Cabrales, so his friends built a temporary shelter with a blue tarp and salvaged wood to cover the vigil.

On the spot where Ricardo lay mortally wounded three weeks earlier, they had placed a collection of candles. After Tuesday’s rainfall, Haley Marmolejo, 19, tried to relight the candles. Outside her front gate, she swept away the water with an old broom and threw away some of the offerings, wet posters and a soggy McDonald's cheeseburger.

“It’s time for this to go too,” she said as she picked up a drenched stuffed animal. “This all can’t stay forever.”

Marmolejo was nearby on Aug. 28 when her friend was shot. She had been talking to Ricardo and some of his friends outside her home in the 16100 block of South Essey Avenue when Ricardo and another friend walked away.

Before Marmolejo had walked into her home, she heard gunshots. She turned and ran to the front gate where Ricardo had fallen and held the teen in her arms until deputies arrived.

“I felt nothing. Nothing seemed to exist when I looked into his eyes,”she trailed off as she tried to remember. “The last thing I told him was that everything would be OK. But I just knew that he was going to die.”

Los Angeles County sheriff’s detectives said that moments earlier, a light-colored sedan drove up and a person opened fire on Ricardo and his friend. Both were injured, but the friend survived. Authorities have not made any arrests. 

Ricardo Cabrales Sr., the teen’s father, arrived shortly after authorities, but he could not make it through the barricade.

“I kept seeing my son trying to get back up and falling down. I did everything I could to get to him, but I felt so helpless," he said.

The father said he was not allowed to ride in the ambulance with his son, so he drove to California Hospital Medical Center.  Cabrales sat with his wife and a nun in the waiting room for an hour before doctors told him that his son had died.

“There was so much I wanted to do with my boy. So much I was supposed to teach him,” Cabrales said. “He wasn’t a perfect son. But he was my boy.”

After his parents separated about a year ago, the 14-year-old had lived at Marmolejo’s house, which was a retreat for his friends when they had difficulties at home.

Andres Meza said the group formed a tagging crew and got up to mischief in the neighborhood.

“We were not perfect at all. Not even close. But we never did anything that we deserved to be shot for.” said Meza, 20, while propping up the shelter for the vigil.

Now Meza said he feels stricken when he looks out his front door. He feels troubled when he passes the spot where Ricardo was shot. And any unfamiliar face brings a surge of uneasiness.

Ricardo Cabrales was the 5th person killed in the East Compton neighborhood this year, according to the Times Homicide Report database.

“I just wanna go crazy. You shouldn’t feel like this in your own neighborhood,” Meza said.

The midday sun came as Meza managed to get the shelter to stand on its own. Marmolejo stood nearby while looking at the vigil. A few candles held on to their flames.

Contact the Homicide Report. And follow @latimeshomicide on Twitter.

Photo: An assortment of candles, Budweiser cans and posters placed outside an East Compton home where Ricardo Cabrales, 14, was fatally shot after coming home from school. Credit: Jerome Campbell, Los Angeles Times