Was boy's slaying gang related?

Saturday was another typical day in the teenage life of Augustin Andrade Navarro.

The 14-year-old got a ride from his home in Plymouth to hook up with some former school friends in Minneapolis and download music. The group dropped off a car for an oil change about 2 p.m. at Lake Street and Portland Avenue. Augustin planned to call his mom for a lift back home.

But then a car full of teens drove up, words were exchanged and shots were fired. Bullets hit Augustin in the chest and abdomen. Hands shaking, his friends held his head as he bled to death.

Four hours later, police were looking for connections in the drive-by shooting death of an 18-year-old man in Richfield. Both homicides appear to be gang-related, but police continue to investigate whether the victims or suspects have gang affiliations.

Gang violence has been relatively dormant across the city since fall, but police officials have seen an upswing in the past month.

Augustin's mother, Leonor, said Monday he wasn't in a gang. She didn't know "why anybody would do this to us." The family was planning to meet his girlfriend and go dancing the day he was shot.

"The only thing my mother said she feels right now is sadness," said her daughter Laura, who translated her comments. "The only thing she is mad about is that Augustin didn't have a chance to defend himself."

Augustin and his friends were in the parking lot of a Midas Auto Service Shop at Lake and Portland when the confrontation flared. It is too soon to draw a definite link between his death and the killing of 18-year-old Gustavo Ortega in Richfield, but "there is enough similarity that we are taking a serious look," said Minneapolis homicide Lt. Amelia Huffman. A man has been arrested in the Richfield case.

Violent crimes, which include homicides, rapes, aggravated assaults and robberies, have dropped 7 percent citywide from the same time last year. Lucy Gerold, head of the Third Precinct in south Minneapolis, where Augustin was killed, said police there are dealing with a recent increase in gang violence. That includes Latino, African-American and Somali gangs, she said.

"One of the things we are doing is gang training for all officers, especially on the active gangs so they can learn the players and their habits," she said. "We want to be more proactive than reactive. Saturday's homicide was an anomaly for this area."

On the North Side, Fourth Precinct Inspector Mike Martin said several small, unstructured gangs who aren't fighting over turf are responsible for at least four shootings. One incident involved a downtown shooting near Target Center Feb. 17.

Several of those gang members were present the day before when David Fields, 17, was shot to death in a north Minneapolis home. According to police, a 19-year-old was playing with a loaded gun and accidentally hot Fields in the head, police said. He has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.

Such gangs are harder to disband by traditional policing techniques because of their loose structure, Martin said. They often don't use real names, make up gang symbols and change gang affiliations on a daily basis, he said. Most are still going to school, and don't have lengthy criminal histories.

"You have to work harder at gathering intelligence and get the information out quickly," he said. "I wouldn't say we have it under control, but we are tracking people closely."

With traditional gangs, police put together a long-term strategy, document activity and target individual members, he said. The department's Violent Offender Task Force has broken up three long-established gangs in the past two years.

Now, officers will saturate areas where the gangs are active, make traffic stops and monitor probation conditions, Martin said. Residents have also warned police about "things that were going to happen" with gang members, which has helped prevent some shootings and possibly a homicide, Martin said.

A pitcher and a Santana fan

Laura said Augustin dreamed of becoming a famous baseball player and had recently been chosen for the pitching staff on a local team. Even though he's a righty, he loved pitcher Johan Santana, the former Minnesota Twins' star left-hander.

Maricela Navarro, Augustin's oldest sister, said she had no reason to believe any of his friends belonged to a gang. She wondered if Augustin was unknowingly wearing colors of a rival gang when he was shot.

The family, which moved from Veracruz, Mexico, about 10 years ago, has been struggling financially because Augustin's father has had trouble finding construction work. The family had planned to visit Veracruz next winter. It was Augustin's wish to be buried there, where he was born, his sister said. The family is trying to find a way to honor his wishes.

The last time Leonor Navarro saw her son was Friday, when she returned home from caring for her sister in California.

"He said the house was so empty when she wasn't around," Maricela said. "Now ... "