Two-year-old shot dead by stranger in fast food restaurant

THE parents of a two-year-old boy killed

The gunman fled after Monday's shooting in Pomona, California, but was killed by police after pulling the weapon and telling them, "shoot me, shoot me". The toddler, Osvaldo Martinez, died in hospital.

"It appeared to be unmotivated," police Sergeant Joann Crabb said of the shooting. "Apparently it was totally unprovoked from what witnesses were saying."

Osvaldo's parents, Yessenia Rochin and Servando Martinez, huddled underneath a blue blanket on their couch yesterday and cried as they recalled their little boy. "He was a very happy child, very loving," Ms Rochin said in Spanish. "He loved to jump. He was everything for me that child, and they killed him. They killed my boy."

Ms Rochin's sister-in-law, Sylvia Mero, spent yesterday trying to start a fund to pay for the boy's burial costs and psychological counselling for his two brothers, Omar, six, and Gerardo, seven. She said the family had gone to the Burger King restaurant at Osvaldo's request.

At the urging of an uncle, Omar tried to explain what happened.

"Osvaldo was on the floor. My mother wanted to get him, but she couldn't because he was full of blood," Omar said before he put his face in his hands and started crying.

The shooting sent customers and employees scrambling for cover. "I heard the mother screaming in Spanish, 'Why did you do this to my son?'," said shocked employee Arturo Flores, 22. "She was in shock, she saw her son covered in blood."

Authorities were waiting for the results of toxicology tests to determine if the gunman, Daniel Moreno, 24, was under the influence of drugs at the time of the shooting. Mr Flores said the gunman appeared to be on drugs, adding: "He killed him just to kill him."

Moreno and a friend fled the restaurant, but were spotted near a phone box about a block from the Burger King. Sgt Crabb said officers contacted Moreno and he told them, "shoot me, shoot me", Sgt Crabb said.

At least one officer used pepper spray on Moreno, but he allegedly pulled out a gun and pointed it, prompting the officers to fire.

Sgt Crabb said the killing appeared to be an isolated incident and was not gang-related.