Shooters spray homes, wound sleeping girl

CARLSBAD, N.M. (KRQE) - A Carlsbad neighborhood woke up in terror Monday as gunshots from a drive-by shooting injured a 6-year-old girl and narrowly missed a toddler asleep in a crib.

The people police believe are responsible are two young teens, one of whom has made the news before .

The shots rang out just before 4 a.m. Monday on Carver Street in Carlsbad.

"Well I knew it was a gunshot," recalled Zeffie Pirtle.  "It's like boom-boom-boom-boom-boom, you know, so many times."

"My kids were scared; my wife--we were all terrified," Carver Street resident Greg Guerra told News 13.  "We didn't know what to think."

Guerra called police after he heard the gunshots breaking the glass on his front door.

He has bullet holes in that door and in the walls near his living room. Guerra said one bullet went as far as his refrigerator.

"We found another bullet hole right there where we watch TV, where I lay down sometimes," Guerra continued. "My head would have been right there where that bullet would have went in."

Bullets also hit another home down the street where police said a 6-year-old girl was shot in her arm as she slept in her bedroom. She was rushed to the hospital and is expected to be alright. 

But neighbors say there are lots of kids on the block and that bullets narrowly missed a toddler. The Guerra family babysits a 2-year-old girl every day.

"It's a scary situation because the house that was shot into, the lady, she babysits my granddaughter," said Dick Young, who also lives on Carver Street.

Later Monday the owner of a black Ford Explorer said she found bullet casings inside her vehicle, and when she saw on Facebook that there had been a shooting on Carver Street, she decided to call police. 

According to police, the Explorer belonged to the mother of a juvenile who is not charged in the case but who was with two 14-year-olds arrested Monday night.  Police said they believe Zane Fernandez and Moses Christian Cabezuela randomly shot at homes on Carver Street.

"The only explanation so far that we have received is that they were together and had stated something like they just wanted to go out and do a drive-by," said Carlsbad Police Chief Daniel Fierro.

Court documents allege Fernandez pulled out a semi-automatic gun and fired several shots from the passenger side of the Explorer towards the first home hit.

Cabezuela then stated he wanted to shoot, took the gun from Fernandez and fired near homes down the road from the driver's side, according to the documents.

The teens allegedly drove to a nearby park.  There Fernandez reportedly left the vehicle with the gun, came back without it, and the boys returned home.

Neighbors in the area are angry at what they call a senseless crime, but they're also thankful no one was killed. 

At least one of the teens has been in trouble with the law before. Cabezuela is the same kid arrested for leading Carlsbad police on a high-speed chase in September after he was spotted breaking into cars.

When police finally stopped him, they found a gun, alcohol and a marijuana pipe in the truck. Cabezuela has arrests dating back to age 12.