A town on edge

WAPATO -- A makeshift memorial glowed in the dusk Tuesday not far from the place 16-year-old Ricardo Cabrera was shot.

More than 30 candles in glass canisters bearing depictions of Jesus and the Virgin Mother surrounded the flowers. A bag of Cheetos and Kool-Aid were propped against one candle, and several dollars in change were tossed in front.

A few yards away, a handful of somber young men stood quietly on the front porch of the dead boy's family home. When approached by a reporter, they looked away or at the ground, indicating they weren't interested in talking.

Elsewhere in town Tuesday, authorities were busy painting over graffiti reading "RIP Ricky." It was sprayed, among other places, on a house, a church, several stores, a city building, a school and a restaurant.

Cabrera, a sophomore at Wapato High School, was walking just yards from his home on North Track Road last Wednesday night when gunfire erupted from a passing car.

He is the third 16-year-old to be killed in Yakima County this year. Like at least half of the county's 18 homicides, police believe his death is gang-related. Earlier the same week, an 18-year-old died after being shot to death in a confrontation in Sunnyside.

Cabrera's shooting spiked gang activity at Wapato High School, where gang members on Monday displayed gang colors and a fistfight broke out between two girls, said police Chief Richard Sanchez.

Police, who fear more problems, will be out in full force today for Cabrera's funeral.

"Usually after a funeral of this type, you're going to have different people come around, and someone in the crowd could do something stupid," he said.

Sanchez said it's heart-wrenching to see the gang feuds within the Latino community.

"All the Hispanics are shooting the Hispanics," he said. "They're killing their own people."

He blames parents for much of the gang problem plaguing the Yakima Valley.

"The families have to wake up and understand that they know that their kids are involved in gang activity," he said. "They have to wake up."

Cabrera was the youngest of six children. In his obituary, published in the Herald-Republic on Tuesday, the family described his love of sports, drawing and music.

His parents declined to be interviewed. They were preparing for visitation and a rosary at Merritt Funeral Home.

While crime has always been a problem in town, the shooting has many here worried, according to Jessica Padilla, who works at the San Juan Restaurant, one of the many places hit by the RIP graffiti.

Shootings last year prompted the restaurant to begin closing at dark, she said.

"We have to lock the doors and double-check them and make sure no one is out there when we leave (the restaurant)," she said.

Sanchez said police often answer calls in the area of North Track Road and near Mamachut Lane, a Yakama tribal housing project also known for gang violence. It is about a block away from where Cabrera was shot.

Jared Ross, a 16-year-old Wapato High student who didn't personally know Cabrera, said the killing has hit the school hard. He pointed to the "RIP Ricky" graffiti that had popped up around town and said the atmosphere at the high school has been gloomy since last week.

"There's been a lot of people devastated," Ross said Monday. "He had a lot of friends."

There have been no arrests in Cabrera's death, but Wapato Mayor Jesse Farias believes police will make progress in the case.

"I'm concerned that there was shooting in my town. Who wouldn't be?" Farias said. But "I think they're taking the right steps to solve this."

As for the extent of gang violence in Wapato, "I don't think we're having any problems that are worse than any other town," he said.

* Information from Herald-Republic reporter Pat Muir was used in this report.

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