Family Morns Rialto man who was gunned down (Daily Bulletin 08172006).

He might not have been known by the person that killed him, however he was more then likely known by the people or other gang members that were there, since it is un cool to come out against a senior gang member well he might have been shot. Other then my pure speculations it is hard to guess why he was shot without talking to people that saw what had happened. IT is just tragic, that a killing spree that lasted some six weeks had to come to an end!!

BSRanch

Family mourns Rialto man who was gunned down

By Melissa Pinion-Whitt, Staff Writer

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

Joshua Stanton was standing by his parked car Saturday night when he began to feel uncomfortable.

He was in a neighborhood he didn't normally go to and a friend he agreed to meet hadn't shown up yet. He called her and said he was going to leave.

But before he had the chance to drive off, a shooter approached, opened fire and left him to die in the street.

Now the 21-year-old Rialto man's relatives, who suspect he was killed by gang members, are trying to come to grips with why Stanton was targeted.

"He just wanted acceptance from everybody," his sister Essence Wilson said. "He wasn't no gang hood person. He just wanted to hang out with people."

He was the 35th person to be killed in San Bernardino since January after more than a month of calm following a spate of violence that started last year.

Stanton was born in San Bernardino on Dec. 20, 1984, graduated from Eisenhower High School in Rialto and played for the Major Pop Warner baseball league. He had just started a job driving a forklift at an Ontario warehouse.

He was an avid drummer and received his first drum kit when he was 6 years old. His mother, Gwendolyn Patrick, said he'd lock himself in a room and play for hours. He played for the church where his grandmother was pastor and his mother was assistant pastor.

Stanton made sure his clothes were immaculate when he left the house, even removing any black marks from his sneakers. He left a 5-year-old son, Joshua Jr.

His family members flooded in and out of their Rialto home Monday, exchanging hugs and hoping the police get a break in the case.

Stanton's grandmother, Isabella Brazier, called her grandson a strong-willed person, but he wasn't violent.

"He didn't do anyone any harm," she said. "He didn't pick fights."

But he often visited a relative in an area of San Bernardino known to have a significant population of Bloods gang members, his mother said. She believes rival gang members targeted him, thinking he was a member of the Bloods.

Whatever the reason, Stanton's mother said she's fed up with the city's gang violence and hopes the community comes together in prayer and that parents become more supportive of their children.

She also hopes the killers hear her reaction to the death of her son.

"If you could just feel just a touch of the grief that I feel for my son, who was my hero, you would never have done this thing," she said.

Melissa Pinion-Whitt can be reached by e-mail at melissa.pinion-whitt@dailybulletin.com or by phone at (909) 386-3878.