The Votes Are In!
2024 Readers' Choice is back, bigger and better than ever!
View Winners → 
13-year-old Pasadena boy killed by stray bullet while playing video games in his bedroom
Pasadena Independent Nov 22, 2021
Iran Moreno-Balvaneda. | Photo courtesy of GoFundMe
by
share with
Pasadena police were poring over surveillance footage Sunday from a neighborhood were a 13-year-old boy was shot and killed by a stray bullet as he played video games in his bedroom.
The shooting occurred at 6:12 p.m. Saturday in the 900 block of North Raymond Avenue, near Mountain Street, when a stray bullet was shot through a window, according to Commander Mark Goodman of the Pasadena Police Department.
Arriving officers performed CPR on the boy and paramedics rushed him to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Goodman said.
The boy was identified by family members as Iran Moreno-Balvaneda, ABC7 reported.
The target of the shooting was unknown, but it did not appear to be the boy, he said. Investigators had no suspect information but were asking the public to come forward with information.
“If you know anything about this tragic incident, or you saw anything, please, please, please come forward to the Pasadena Police Department,” Goodman said, according to ABC7. “We will keep your information anonymous. What we want to do is find the people who are responsible for this tragic incident and bring them to justice.”
Pasadena City Councilman John J. Kennedy implored the shooter to come forward.
“To the person who thought so little of all of us to fire a gun in our neighborhood and take this young life: The consequence of your thoughtless action is grief and suffering beyond words. Turn yourself in.”
Kennedy also urged anyone who was with or knows the shooter to turn them in.
Multiple shots were fired, but police did not know whether the shooter fired from a vehicle or was on foot.
“We’re looking at all the available video that we have,” Pasadena Police Chief John Perez said Sunday at a morning news conference at City Hall. “There’s so much we have to look at, because there’s hours and hours of it. … We don’t just look at the time it occurred. We go from before and after and we pull so much from so many places, it takes a lot of time. And so we still have to go back today and knock on doors and try to find more.”
Anyone with information about the gunshots was urged to call Pasadena police at 626-744-4241 or provide information anonymously by contacting Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS (8477) or lacrimestoppers.org. People can also provide tips with a smart phone by downloading the P3 Tips mobile app.
According to multiple media reports, the family has set up a GoFundMe to cover funeral expenses.
More from Pasadena Independent
