11-YEAR-OLD'S FUNERAL TODAY

Eleven-year-old Alberto "Betito" Sepulveda will be buried today, six days
after he was shot to death in his Modesto home by a SWAT team member during
a drug raid.

Later today, a rally is planned outside the 5:15 p.m. Modesto City Council
meeting at Tenth Street Place, to protest the Police Department's claim
that the shooting was accidental.

Modesto Mayor Carmen Sabatino and Police Chief Roy W. Wasden are expected
to attend the boy's funeral, which will begin with a 9 a.m. Mass at St.
Frances of Rome Catholic Church in Riverbank.

Following the Mass, the procession to St. Stanislaus Catholic Cemetery will
be escorted by a Modesto Police Department motorcycle unit. City officials
said the motorcycle escort was requested by the family. The procession is
expected to pass Prescott Senior Elementary School, where Alberto recently
started the seventh grade.

City officials said they would pay for the boy's funeral and help repair
damage to the Sepulveda home, but family members rejected the offer.

"By accepting their money for the funeral it's like saying what they did
was OK. It's not OK," said Felipe Martinez, the boy's uncle. "When they
killed him, they took part of our lives away. We're still angry."

Relatives, friends and reporters crowded around Martinez in front of the
Riverbank Memorial Chapel, where a public viewing was held Monday evening.
Inside, a stream of men, women and children paid their respects. City
Councilman Mike Serpa was among those attending.

White roses and carnations surrounded the boy's black coffin at the front
of the chapel positioned beneath a lit portrait of Jesus with the crown of
thorns. A ribbon with the message: "You are forever loved," was lightly
clasped in his hands, rosary beads woven through his fingers.

"I told him I love him and that I miss him," said his 8-year-old sister,
Xitlalic Sepulveda.

Outside, two Latino community advocates held bilingual signs: "Solamente
Pedimos Justicia" (We only ask for justice) and "We protest the racist
murder of 11-year-old Alberto Sepulveda."

"We want justice," said Miguel Donoso, who carried one of the signs. "We
want a federal investigation."

At least four separate investigations -- two reviews by the Police
Department, one by the city attorney's office and one by the district
attorney's office -- are under way.

Two Hispanic organizations -- the Los Banos chapter of the Mexican-American
Political Association and the Modesto chapter of the American GI Forum --
want outside agencies, such as the California attorney general, to
investigate the shooting. Wasden said his department would welcome either a
state or federal probe.

"We can't bring this little boy back," Wasden said. "We need to learn, move
forward and make sure nothing like this ever happens again. Clearly, this
investigation is going to change the way we do business. It would be an
even bigger tragedy if it weren't."

Officer David Hawn, whose shotgun discharged when he was pointing it at the
boy, remains on paid leave, and Wasden said Monday he wasn't sure when Hawn
would return to duty.

The 21-year officer was involved in a previous shooting incident with the
SWAT team in February 1999. Police were investigating a man with guns and
drugs in his La Loma area home. The man committed suicide before police
entered. A pit bull attacked the officers when they went inside and Hawn's
gun discharged. Investigators ruled that the man was already dead and Hawn
was exonerated.

Alberto Sepulveda was fatally shot on Wednesday as he lay face down on his
bedroom floor, as ordered by the officers.

Moments earlier, Hawn and other SWAT team members stormed inside to secure
the house before federal drug agents entered to arrest the boy's father,
33-year-old Moises Sepulveda.

Investigators say they may never may know how Hawn's gun discharged. Wasden
said one possibility is that something accidentally moved the trigger as
Hawn pointed the gun at the boy -- perhaps the handle of a knife.

John Caudron, a firearms expert who has reconstructed gun accidents for the
past 25 years, said the trigger on Hawn's weapon, a 12-gauge Bernelli
shotgun, had to have been pulled.

"Unless the trigger's pulled, it won't go off," he said.

The pull could have come from Hawn's finger, he said, or, as Wasden
suggested, clothing or equipment could have snagged the trigger when the
officer was jostled in the hallway.

Moments after the shooting, other officers heard Hawn say his finger was
not on the trigger.

"All we can say is nothing we've found at this point indicates that this
was anything but an accident," Wasden said.

That conclusion did little to ease the pain of family members.

"They say it's accidental. They say, 'Oops, sorry,' " said Martinez, the
boy's uncle. "Oops, there's an 11-year-old boy who's dead. All the sorries
and excuses in the world will not bring him back."

Outside the funeral home Monday, Sepulveda held his shaking wife, Sonia.

"They took a part of my heart, a part of my life away," Sepulveda said. "He
was the happiest child, and they came in and stole his life."

The family, he said, will return to live in their home on McAdoo Avenue.

"Everything will stay the same. His room will stay the same," Sepulveda
said. "My son was happy and we were happy in that house. ...When we go back
he will be there with us."

Sepulveda has refused to answer any questions about the criminal case
against him. On the morning his son died, Sepulveda was arrested on a
federal warrant charging him with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
He was released two days later after promising to use equity in his home to
a secure a $20,000 bail bond by the end of the month.

Sepulveda has lived in Stanislaus County for 15 years, five of them in the
Highway Village home. He has no felony convictions in Stanislaus County.
City officials said Monday that no drugs or weapons were found in the
house. Cash was found.

Federal drug agents requested the use of SWAT teams to secure the Sepulveda
residence and 13 other locations in coordinated predawn raids aimed at
cracking a major methamphetamine distribution network.

Bee staff writer Steve Elliott contributed to this report.