One year after a 12-year-old boy was killed by a stray bullet in the Skyline neighborhood on Thanksgiving, the case remains a mystery.
Who fired the bullet and exactly where it came from remain unanswered questions, but San Diego detectives are determined to find solutions.
With little information, police and the family of Ángel Domingo Gaspar Gallegos last week asked anyone with information about the shooting to come forward.
“I just want someone to say something, to talk,” said Eva Gaspar, one of the boy’s aunts. “I was just a kid.”
María Gaspar, another aunt, added: “He could have been anyone’s child.”
Ángel was in his family’s backyard with several cousins when the bullet broke through a fence and hit him at around 9:30pm on November 25, 2021. He collapsed.
Eva Gaspar, who was out with the children, ran to Angel’s side. No one really knew what happened until paramedics arrived and realized the boy’s wound was a gunshot wound.
Angel was taken to a hospital, where he died.
Police later determined that the bullet came from the east and was fired from a distance, but little else is known, said homicide lieutenant Jud Campbell. However, the investigation is “active,” meaning detectives are still working to find ways to solve the case, he said.
“We owe it to Angel to be tough,” Campbell said.
The lieutenant said police recovered the bullet and followed up on leads. He said some leads were generated thanks to Angel’s family, who visited the neighborhood several times and asked anyone with information to come forward with leads.
“Everything we have, we’re looking for not once, not twice… but five times,” Campbell said.
Campbell and Angel’s family are hopeful that anyone who has kept quiet about information can finally speak up and bring a sense of closure to the family.
“It’s been a very, very long year,” said María Gaspar. “For us, it’s like it happened yesterday.”
Eva Gaspar said her 6-year-old son asks if there is anything that can be done to get his cousin back. “I don’t think she understood that when you leave, you leave,” she said.
Other times his son asks to visit Angel’s grave. In those days they collect food and prepare a picnic near Ángel.
This past Thanksgiving, Angel’s parents and siblings, his sister and brother, ages 9 and 12, respectively, chose not to hold a traditional gathering. Instead, they traveled to San Francisco and Yosemite in honor of Angel, who loved visiting new places. The family brought a bear from Build-A-Bear Workshop which they say plays a recording of a voice saying Angel’s name aloud and singing a song Angel used to sing to his mother.
Anyone with information about the case is encouraged to call the San Diego Police at (619) 531-2293 or the Crime Stoppers tip line at (888) 580-8477. Visit the Crime Stoppers website at sdcrimestoppers.org for information about submitting anonymous reports online and through a mobile app.
