Dec 31, 2006

Tongan teen is killed

E. Palo Alto shooting also leaves woman seriously injured

By Banks Albach / Daily News Staff Writer

A 19-year-old Tongan woman was shot to death and a 21-year-old woman was seriously injured Friday night in East Palo Alto after an argument escalated into a gunbattle near Costano Elementary School, police said.

Police responded to reports of gun- shots at 10:34 p.m. on the 2600 block of Fordham Street. The teen, whom friends identified Saturday as Melevea Fifita, a cousin of the teen slain by police a week ago, was shot more than once in the chest with a handgun and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The 21-year-old, who has not been identified, suffered a shotgun blast to her pelvis. She was taken to Stanford Medical Center.

The shootings angered five young males Saturday, who drove to Fifita's memorial at 12:30 p.m. and approached a house on the 2700 block of Fordham. One threw a brick at a front window and two drew handguns and fired roughly ten shots into the air.

"Two guys, they fired," said neighbor Bettie Cacalares, sticking her right arm in the air.

East Palo Alto police Lt. Tom Alipio said he and other officers were worried Friday's shootings were the product of rivalry within the local Pacific-Islander population. But that theory is proving false, he said.

"All we understand right now is that there had been an argument that got physical," Alipio said. "We've heard three or four different stories."

He said Friday's shooting is not connected to the officer-involved shooting, in which 16-year-old robbery suspect Maikeli Iongi was shot and killed by police after allegedly firing on three officers.

On Saturday, one neighbor said he heard roughly 10 handgun shots and about four shotgun blasts Friday before the scene was swarmed with grieving friends, relatives and dozens of squad cars from Menlo Park, Redwood City and Atherton.

Kathy Charles, who lives down the street said she remembered looking out her front door and seeing the injured girl.

"She was trying to get up," Charles said. "And then she realized she couldn't and just fell back."

A red shotgun shell lay less than 20 feet from Fifita's memorial Saturday, where four teenage girls had set up candles to mourn her death. One said Fifita's parents are in Tonga. They said they didn't know the injured girl. The girls did not give their names.

"We came home from church," one said, remembering when she saw the police lights Friday. "I feel bad. I feel sad."

Another friend drove up to the memorial drinking a small bottle of Hennessy Cognac and poured a sip on the sidewalk in front of the candles. She said something to the girls and left.

About 20 minutes later, the group of males drove up in two cars, said something to the girls sitting at the memorial and approached the house, which a neighbor said crawls with dozens of people late at night and overflows with junk and debris in the backyard. One girl called one of the young men by name as they approached the house. The girls fled to a house down the street after hearing the shots.

Two East Palo Alto squad cars and a K-9 Unit arrived shortly after and searched around the house, guns drawn.

"This whole block's a problem," said an officer, who did not give his full name.

Anyone with information about Friday's shootings is asked to call the East Palo Alto Police Department at 650-852-3160, or their anonymous tip line at 650-853-8477.


E-mail Banks Albach at balbach@dailynewsgroup.com.