Boy, 10, Dies in Shooting; Navy Man Held

NATIONAL CITY —  A 10-year-old National City boy died of a bullet wound early Thursday after he was shot by a Navy man in the playground of the apartment complex where they both lived.

On Wednesday morning, Clark Key was keeping score in an improvised ballgame being played by six children. About 11:44 a.m., police say, a rifle shot rang out from the open second-floor window of Petty Officer 3rd Class Ralph Moritz, 26, a sonar technician at the Fleet Anti-Submarine Warfare Training Center.

The other children thought the sound was a firecracker until they looked up to see Clark bleeding from the chest.

“I saw him get up,” said an 8-year-old playmate. “He said, ‘ Mom! ‘ Then he ran in the house. Everybody ran.”

When National City police arrived on the scene on Eta Street a few moments later, Moritz was among the group of residents inside the boy’s apartment doorway trying to stop the bleeding that had saturated the child’s clothes. The boy’s mother, Myong, was also there. His father, Richard, is a gunner’s mate second class on the Navy destroyer Cushing, now off Alaska.

Officer James Dunn said he arrested Moritz after Moritz stepped forward to tell him what had happened, but refused to disclose what Moritz said. Moritz was charged with attempted homicide and held without bail in County Jail. The charge was changed to homicide Thursday.

Clark was taken by Life Flight helicopter to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. He was in surgery for 9 1/2 hours, during which doctors removed one of his lungs. He died in the intensive care unit shortly after midnight.

Police Sgt. James Kneebone said police were checking “every little aspect” in looking for a motive. But he said it was most likely that Moritz had mishandled his rifle. The charge of attempted homicide is based on presumption of gross negligence, Kneebone said.

Thursday afternoon, groups of children played in the apartment complex playground, looking up every so often at the windows of surrounding buildings. Some of the more adventurous climbed partway up the small sand hill where Clark had sat. But no one was playing ball.

“Everyone feels sad,” said a 12-year-old boy. “It could have happened to other people.”

Children and adult residents told stories of Moritz’s collection of guns.

Police said they removed several guns from Moritz’s apartment, including a .223-caliber semi-automatic rifle that they believe was used in the shooting.