Angel "Chunks" Arellano's family buried him in the new clothes that had been waiting for him under his mother's Christmas tree.
The 17-year-old's death was Orange County's 21st gang homicide of 2014.
It's one that might have been prevented, the district attorney suggested in a statement that has raised eyebrows.
For months, prosecutors had sought to impose an injunction restricting the activities of 25 alleged members of the Townsend Street — or Calle Townsend — gang. But 14 of them, including Arellano, remained free of court-ordered restraints while their attorneys fought the effort.
Just after midnight, in the first moments of Christmas Eve, Arellano was gunned down on a Santa Ana street.