RACINE - Fred Candelaria said he has complained several times about alleged crime activity at 1625 Boyd Ave., and police corroborate several incidents of past trouble there. But early Friday night, things hit too close for Candelaria.

The Vietnam-era Navy veteran put his wartime lifesaving training to use as he tended a 15-year-old neighbor who was seriously injured after being hit by a shotgun blast just before 5:53 p.m. inside 1625 Boyd.

The girl left the scene around 6:15 p.m. and was reported to be conscious and in pain. Racine paramedics took her to St. Mary's Medical Center, and later she was taken by Flight For Life to Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa.

Lt. Carlos Lopez of the Racine Police Department said at 9 p.m. that the girl's injuries were serious, but she is expected to survive.

At 5:59 p.m. police apprehended a 15-year-old male suspect in the shooting in an alley outside 1918 Slauson Ave., a few blocks northeast of the shooting site. Lopez did not release the name of the suspect, but said he was being detained at the Racine County Juvenile Detention facility on Taylor Avenue facing pending charges of at least reckless endangerment.

Neighbors identified the suspect as "Tino," a resident of the 1625 address, and Candelaria said the victim, who resides next door to the north, told him that Tino had shot her.

Lopez said the incident was being called an accidental shooting, but the incident remains under investigation.

Candelaria, who lives at 1629 Boyd, was first on the scene after hearing the sound of the gun. He found a neighbor he knows only as "Crystal" crawling toward the front door. Candelaria described the injured leg as hanging on only by a thread.

"By the time I got there she was dragging herself to the door. I told her, 'Crystal, don't move!' Her whole leg looked like it just came apart," Candelaria said. "So I took my belt off and I tied a tourniquet. I just held on to her and I kept telling her to hold on."

Candelaria said there was a lot of blood in the hallway of the home.

"This is ridiculous. She's such a nice, quiet little girl," said Candelaria, who noted that the girl and her family are recent residents of the neighborhood, located between 16th and 17th streets, two blocks south of Washington Avenue.

"What pisses me off is we've always had trouble here. This house has always been home to a bunch of punks," Candelaria said. "They've tried to break into my house, they threatened my wife and no one does anything."

Lopez said police have responded to 1625 Boyd nine times this year alone for a variety of complaints, ranging from an assault to fireworks complaints to family trouble calls. The most serious call up until Friday's shooting was an April 17 report of shots being fired from an upstairs bedroom. The city's SWAT team was called in for that incident, and numerous juveniles were found inside. There was one arrest made in the April 17 incident, but it was not the suspect in Friday's shooting.

Despite their recent arrival in the neighborhood, Candelaria said the victim's family had recently put their home at 1621 Boyd up for sale.

People neighbors described as parents and a sister of the victim headed to St, Mary's Medical Center seconds after the ambulance left. They were visibly distraught.

A technical problem caused 12 comments posted to this story to be erased. Here are the comments:

kkdither wrote: August 11, 2007 3:39PM EST

You can't blame shootings on a lack of taxpayer funded "things to do" in the city. There has never been "things to do" in Racine, unless you are talking about the parks department flooding and having ice skating in the winter. Until only recently we didn't have to worry about children getting shot. There are too many guns on the streets and too many kids who have the gangster mentality. To stop the shootings, kids need to be serious about school, get jobs when they are older and learn that they need to grow up to support themselves (and their children.) The notion that they can all grow up to be rap stars, basketball players or gangster criminals who break the law to get what they want is not working in their favor. I feel bad for this girl. I'm sure she wasn't part of the problem, just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

wondering wrote: August 11, 2007 1:06PM EST

A question for a member of NRA: this is not an attack so don't get immediately defensive. How do you think this terrible situation could have been avoided and that gun kept out of the kid's hands? Would should happen to the people who sold it to them? In other words, how do you realistically propose controlling who has what arms?

JK wrote: August 11, 2007 12:58PM EST

So who is going to pay Crystal's medical bills? Would the homeowner's insurance cover this?

my word wrote: August 11, 2007 12:47PM EST

i dont like racine its boring and kids now-a-days cant seem to find things to do lack of postive places to go and do.if its so much trouble for them to be just hangin out at her or others houses then give them a place or something to do or go like a water park or outdoor stuff and in the winter still ski logdin there arew so many empty builing that are for sale in racine PLZ MAKE SOMETHING OUT OF IT LIKE CONCERTS my gosh dont you get the picture.kids are die in inside and out sick for the girl sake i hope she recovers and does well im sick with racine taxpayers are paying what, i dont see any changes.u no where i am gion with this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! increase the peace do it right and none of this would happen, ban all guns

OrbsCorbs wrote: August 11, 2007 10:55AM EST

HD,

You can look up property information on the city's website: http://www.cityofracine.org/WebPro/

I was just saying to a friend the other day that the "summer shooting season" seems to have quieted down. Maybe the efforts of the police, churches, and community are paying off.

fab wrote: August 11, 2007 10:46AM EST

PRAY!

Murphy's Law wrote: August 11, 2007 9:33AM EST

Accidental shooting my a$$. There's no way you can point a gun at someone and accidentally shoot them. If you're pointing a gun at someone you have the intention to do harm, regardless of whether or not you pull the trigger intentionally - at 15 years old you should be smart enough to know that when pointed at someone a gun will do bodily injury to someone if it "accidentally" goes off. How about this, where in the hell did a 15 year-old get a gun from in the first place? Oh, wait, nevermind, I know - monkey see, monkey do.

Denis Leary wrote: August 11, 2007 9:30AM EST

That area is a magnet for trouble. Must have been a powerful gun.

onemoregirl wrote: August 11, 2007 9:21AM EST

I grew up on the 1500 block of Boyd, we had to sell 9 years ago due to the neighborhood going to crap. I hope the girl is ok, seems like she was hanging around with the wrong crowd though.

HD wrote: August 11, 2007 8:24AM EST

Reporter Wickland

With all the trouble at that address would it be too much trouble to find out who the owner/landlord of the property is?

TLK wrote: August 10, 2007 10:17PM EST

You can tell it is a hot and humid night in Racine. The lack of A/C's over there must be getting tempers hot too!

downtown_racine wrote: August 10, 2007 8:49PM EST

Damn shame; hope she has a full recovery.