Cyndi Loza

Maria Cecilia sat Wednesday in front of a portrait of the Virgin of Guadalupe, mourning the shooting deaths of her two nephews.

“The more you have them here,” said Cecilia in Spanish, putting a hand over her heart, “the more they seem to slip away.”

Christian Humberto Barajas, 16, and Jose Alonso Anguiano, 17, died Tuesday night after the shooting at Miguel Ribera Park.

Reno police said the shooting was prompted by an ongoing feud between two rival gangs that left the two cousins dead and a 15-year-old boy critically injured.

“Everything’s very hard right now,” said Jose Anguiano, Jose Alonso’s father. “It’s unjust that they, at such a young age, can lose their life.”

Anguiano said Jose Alonso wanted to join the Army someday.

He had dropped out of Galena High School last September, according to school district officials.

“People can say what they like, I don’t care, but to me (Anguiano) was a good kid,” Cecilia said. “I always knew him to be an honest, noble kid. I never thought he’d be in a gang. I was in shock.”

Barajas also had dreams of his own, said Salvador Garcia, Barajas’ uncle.

After Barajas dropped out of Washoe High School in March, Garcia said he planned on taking his high school equivalency exam Wednesday.

“He was so excited about it,” Garcia said. “He was a good person but the bad thing was he liked to be involved in gangs.”

It’s frustrating that gangs can exist within the Hispanic community, Cecilia said.

“We came here to triumph not to fight amongst each other,” Cecilia said. “I just want this all to stop and have youth start thinking about the results of all this. They lose their dreams, their friends, their parents (to gangs). We should just be getting along because we’re such a large Latino community.”