Mother prepares to bury son, a stabbing victim at 14

HARLINGEN - Fourteen-year-old Juan Miguel Loredo was a quiet boy who just liked to play football with his friends, his mother, Maria Luisa Castillo Loredo, said Monday.

"He liked music, mostly in English, different kinds," she said in Spanish while sitting at a local funeral home where she was making arrangements to bury her son.

The youth was stabbed to death Friday night during a melee at Buchanan and F streets.

"He liked to draw and play with his friends," she said. "He also liked video games such as Play Station," she said.

Her son was not involved in extracurricular activities at Harlingen High School South, Castillo Loredo said. That was because he couldn't easily get to and from school.

"His mother doesn't drive and the father doesn't live with them," a friend said, interpreting the grieving mother's remarks.

"That's the problem (why Juan Miguel was not in organized sports or clubs)," she said. "He would just take the bus to school and back home."

Juan Miguel was born and raised in the West Buchanan neighborhood, his mother said. He and his older brother would stay busy, and she had never before feared the streets around their home, she said.

"He was a quiet son until lately," Castillo Loredo said. "I started having some problems with him, but nothing major. He just wanted to hang around with his friends.

"About a year ago, he got into a fight with another boy at school. But it was just two teenage boys fighting. There were no police."

Although Juan Miguel's mother and her friends described their neighborhood as safe and calm, they were reluctant to speak freely because they are worried about trouble with gangs.

One of Castillo Loredo's friends said her son told her that older boys recently questioned him about whether he was in a gang, and which one, and warned him about what would happen if he was caught associating with the wrong gang.

But the small group of women said nothing bad happened to the boys before because they were so young.

The friend said that her son and Juan Miguel would occasionally attend church with her at the Salvation Army and participate in Harlingen Boys & Girls Club activities.

"He never mentioned gangs," she said of Juan Miguel. "He didn't have any tattoos. He just wanted to play with his friends.

"They used to play football in a little park at Los Vecinos. There are no problems. It is a peaceful area."

But since Friday, peace suddenly has deserted the neighborhood.

Police first had to deal with the stabbing incident, in which at least two other people were wounded. Then a couple of hours later, firefighters had to put out a fire nearby at the old Hygeia Dairy plant, now home to a flea market.

Arson investigators were still working at that site on Monday.

Sunday night police were called again for reports of shots fired in the area.

And late Monday afternoon, a car fire was reported on Buchanan.

Gang activity has been reported before in this part of the city.

In the 2004 trial of Paul Joseph Shoemaker, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for the 2002 killing of Richard Reyes, prosecutors presented expert witnesses who described nightly gang activity in the Buchanan Avenue area.

Shoemaker was earning membership in the Latin Kings, a nationwide street gang, when he was ordered to kill Reyes, trial witnesses testified.

Dennis Zamarron, a former Harlingen police officer and now an investigator for the Cameron County District Attorney's Office, testified at the 2004 trial that gangs were claiming territory in every part of the city, with names such as Eastside Locals and Westside Los Vecinos.

Whatever the cause of Friday night's violence, the slaying leaves a 14-year-old dead and his broken family behind to pick up the pieces.

Castillo Loredo said she is trying to bring some family members from Mexico to attend her son's funeral. She has been told that a state crime victims' assistance program may help pay funeral costs, the grieving mother said.

To help the family of Juan Miguel Loredo with funeral expenses, contact Angelita Castillo at (956) 226-9776.