A 7-year-old boy with a “cheerful soul and a great smile” was playing at a neighbor’s midtown home early Saturday when he heard gunshots outside. He ran to the door to see what was happening, and was shot and killed.
Johnathan Federico was playing when the shooting started just after 12:30 a.m. Saturday in the 1700 block of South Sahuara Avenue, near East 29th Street and South Craycroft Road.
Across the street from the home, which is in a small apartment complex near the Corbett Elementary School yard, Alvinthe Valenzuela, 21, fired shots from a handgun toward the home, said Sgt. Matt Ronstadt, a Tucson police spokesman.
Johnathan, his 13-year-old sister, and at least two other people were inside the home of 20-year-old Tabitha Martinez when they heard the shots. Martinez was caring for the children at the time and said Johnathan and his sister ran to the door to see what was going on outside.
Martinez saw two people standing near the curb in front of the complex. Police said one was Valenzuela.
Martinez remembers Johnathan’s sister yelling out to them, “What are you doing here? Get out of here.”
Martinez said she pulled the 13-year-old girl back inside the home and as she grabbed Johnathan by the arm to pull him back, he was shot in the torso.
“He just grabbed himself, and he fell,” Martinez said. “He didn’t even cry. He just said ‘Ow, it hurts’ and he wanted to lie down.”
Martinez called 911 while Johnathan’s sister ran home to get their mother, she said.
When police arrived they found the young boy inside the apartment and began to render aid while waiting for paramedics. He was taken to a hospital where he died.
area searched
Other officers searched the area and detained two men, Ronstadt said.
One was believed to have gang ties, but there was no indication the slaying was gang-related, police said.
Although Martinez remembers the 13-year-old yelling to the gunman, police said it was an adult standing by the door who verbally confronted the shooter. But police did not say who that adult was, the age of the adult or the relationship between the adult and the little boy.
Police said that during the verbal confrontation, Valenzuela began walking toward the complex and stood on the road in front of it. He pointed the gun at the person in the doorway and fired at least one shot, Ronstadt said.
Johnathan was hit by at least one of those shots, he said.
Martinez said the first-grader and other neighbors often gathered at her home. Johnathan had been there since shortly after getting out of school Friday at Corbett Elementary, located right across the street.
“He was just a really happy kid, and he was excited all the time,” Martinez said. “He was always trying to make everyone laugh, and he liked to dance.
“I feel like it’s not fair; he was so little. It just doesn’t make any sense.”
It wasn’t known if there is any relationship between the suspects and the victim or other residents at the complex.
Police did not clarify if the gunman was initially shooting directly at Martinez’s home or firing randomly.
Martinez said she didn’t recognize the two and didn’t know why they would be shooting right outside her home.
Diligent first-grader
Johnathan was a hard-working first-grader at Corbett Elementary School, said the school’s principal, Joyce Dillon. She said the little boy always tried to do his best.
This school year Johnathan was instrumental in the composition of a first-grade opera, she said. First-graders in the school’s Opening Minds Through the Arts program work with University of Arizona opera students, Corbett’s website says.
“He was helpful and was a very cheerful soul, with a great smile that even lit his eyes up,” Dillon said Saturday. “He will be dearly missed.”
Counselors and a crisis team will be on hand at Corbett on Monday to help students and teachers cope with their grief and to answer questions, said Maggie Shafer, assistant superintendent in charge of TUSD’s elementary schools.
“We are deeply saddened by this senseless act. Our thoughts and prayers go out to Johnathan’s family, friends and the school community,” Shafer said.
Valenzuela was booked into the Pima County jail on one count of first-degree murder, discharging a firearm at an occupied residence, and aggravated assault with a deadly weapon.
The other man was initially detained but later released as he did not have a role in the shooting, police said.
On StarNet: View an interactive map of daily crime in Tucson at azstarnet.com/crimemap
