Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Hollywood, CA: Local man survives Hollywood shooting, fire

A Lompoc musician is in a Los Angeles hospital Monday night, recovering from a shooting rampage that left two people dead and seriously injured three others.

Police said the bodies of the gunman and one victim were found in the burnt out house in East Hollywood last Thursday. Firefighters and police had to fight intense flames to help rescue the three gunshot victims who survived.

Investigators said the shootings were possibly the result of some kind of domestic dispute.

One of the surviving gunshot victims is a 34 year-old man named Brad Draconis. Draconis has long ties to the Central Coast. He grew up in Lompoc and graduated from Santa Maria High School. Draconis' family said he told them the shooter was his girlfriend's ex-boyfriend.

"When I first heard it, I didn't believe it. I went numb," said Draconis' mother, Erlinda Guerro.

Erlinda Guerro had just gotten off the phone with her son, who's birth name is Brandon Guerro-Smith, about an hour before she received a terrible call. "Throughout the whole time, I'm just like thinking, I, I hope he's okay. I prepared my mind to find my son dead," said Guerro.

A social worker called to let her know about the shootings, and that her son had been shot. "I figured If he's dead, I'm going to have to realize that I'm going to be burying him," said Guerro.

Draconis was in his rented room with his girlfriend, trying to help her set up her new cell phone. According to family, her ex-boyfriend broke in and started shooting.

Draconis was shot in the ear and arm. His girlfriend was shot in the face. Both are expected to survive, but it's going to be a long fight. His family is just happy their musician is alive. "Ever since he was a little kid, he was always making noise, just repetition and stuff like that. We kind of knew he was musically inclined," said sister, Ramona Guerro.

Draconis will be going into surgery Tuesday or Wednesday. As for his girlfriend, she went into surgery Sunday, and is expected to go back sometime this week.

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