A Bullet Strikes Down Dream of Fighting Violence

His nickname was Superstar, because family and friends felt sure the former police Explorer would have a bright future wearing the badge of a law enforcement officer.

But police said Loli Castaneda, 25, of South Los Angeles was fatally gunned down last week by the same random gang violence that he had vowed to fight two years ago when a drive-by shooting took the life of a family friend.

“He wanted to take violence off the streets,” said his sister, Anabel, 17. “He didn’t like the idea that gang members would shoot innocent people.”

The hospital worker, described by colleagues as popular and always smiling, was nearing his goal of becoming a Los Angeles Police Department officer when he was mortally wounded in a supermarket parking lot near USC. He was getting a snack after a gym workout that was part of his training to qualify for the force.

Three gang members accosted him, ending his life with a bullet to the chest, authorities said.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who said he was moved by the case, called Castaneda’s parents, Benjamin Sr. and Estela, on Tuesday to offer condolences and lament gang violence.

“My parents started crying on the phone,” said Castaneda’s brother, Benjamin Jr., 31, who lives nearby. “But they were more proud than sad, because my brother stood for good intentions.”

The unprovoked assault on innocent victims “makes no sense to rational people,” Villaraigosa told The Times on Wednesday. “The gratuitous gun violence that occurs is so disturbing and painful, especially in South L.A.”

Castaneda was remembered this week by friends and family as a young man with a serious goal but who often laughed and joked to raise people’s spirits. “Everyone knew him as someone who never had a bad day or never really showed it,” his brother said.

He was constantly gabbing on his cellphone with friends. “You couldn’t get him off -- it was ringing every five minutes,” his sister said.

People teased him about his unusual first name, pronounced LOW-lee. Castaneda saw it as a great excuse to crack jokes or strike up conversations.

The night he died, however, police say he was minding his own business. Three known gang members followed Castaneda and a 26-year-old buddy out of a Ralphs supermarket at Vermont Avenue and Adams Boulevard shortly before midnight July 28, according to investigators.

Police said a store surveillance tape showed that the suspects walked up to the car from the passenger side and fired one round, hitting Castaneda, who was behind the wheel.

Investigators characterized the incident as senseless brutality directed at a total stranger.

“I don’t know why they picked on him,” his brother said. “He had no gang connections. He didn’t look like a gang member.”

Casteneda used his cellphone to call for help. Paramedics took him to a local hospital, where he died a short time later.

The next day, police arrested Joshua Mansion, 18, Dwayne Wheeler, 20, and Rabih James, 17, all of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles County district attorney filed murder charges against the three, and James will be classified as an adult, said spokeswoman Jane Robison. They pleaded not guilty at an arraignment Tuesday. Bail was set at $2 million each.

The 2003 drive-by slaying of family friend Gamal Baseer, 28, spurred Castaneda to redouble his efforts to enter law enforcement, about two years after he had approached the LAPD.

The first time around, “Loli had hit a bump in the LAPD application process, and he was discouraged,” his brother said.

Family members and the LAPD said they did not know why. But after the death of Baseer, whom the family had known for 19 years, Castaneda vowed to join the LAPD and “go in there and make a difference,” Benjamin Jr. recalled. He had completed several application stages, including a lie detector test and a physical exam, relatives said.

LAPD officials said Castaneda’s application had been under active consideration but details were unavailable. “If he passed the physical, that means he was almost in,” said Officer Lucy Diaz, an LAPD spokeswoman.

News of the crime, coupled with Casteneda’s determination to become a police officer, was met with shock at the department, Diaz said. “It was a huge deal. Here you have this young man with dreams and they’re shattered by gang violence.”

Anabel Castaneda said the grieving family has been comforted by expressions of sympathy from LAPD personnel who did not know Loli.

Castaneda’s dream of becoming a police officer began at 13, when he joined the Police Explorer program, which introduces youths to law-enforcement careers.

“He loved the program. He never missed a meeting,” said Benjamin Jr. “When he left the program at 18, he had achieved lieutenant rank, and the younger kids looked up to him.”

After graduating from Manual Arts High School, Castaneda attended community college and began a two-year student worker program at Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall in Downey that enabled him to counsel troubled youths.

“He told them to straighten up,” his brother said. “The people running Los Padrinos thought kids would listen to him because he was close to their age.”

His job as a receptionist and file clerk at County-USC Medical Center, which he held for seven years, satisfied some of his desire to help people, co-workers said.

“Loli was the kind of person people loved because of his kindness,” said Amilcar Bernabe, his supervisor in the outpatient department. “He had a positive attitude that overflowed to other people.”

Castaneda always had a smile for patients and went out of his way to help them so often that some would send him thank-you letters, Bernabe said.

“He would bring some of those letters to my mom,” Benjamin Jr. said. “He would have been a perfect police officer, because he had such great people skills.”

A funeral is scheduled for Tuesday.