7-Year-Old Held Down for Gang Tatt: Police
Father allegedly restrained boy during painful process
Fresno PD
Fresno police released this picture of the boy's tattooed hip area.
A man in Fresno took gang recruitment to a whole new level when he had his young son tattooed with a gang symbol, police said.
The 26-year-old member of Fresno's largest street gang, the Bulldogs, held down his 7-year-old son while another gang member painfully marked the boy's belly with the group's insignia -- a paw print, police said.
"Imagine a 7-year-old boy who's already terrified because he's being held down against his will," Fresno Police Department spokesman Jeff Cardinale said. "Then to have needles repeatedly stuck into his body for a tattoo he did not even want."
Police found out about the cruel incident when they boy's mother called to report it.
The alleged tattooer, 20-year-old Travis Gorman, was arrested and charged with six felonies, reported KSEE.
Police are still looking for the boy's father, Enrique Gonzales. He faces six charges including mayhem, child abuse, false imprisonment, battery, participating in a criminal street gang and committing a crime for the benefit of a gang. He also goes by the name Henry Gonzales.
The Fresno Police Department and the city's gang prevention initiative have offered to remove the tattoo for free.
Here's to hoping this youngster doesn't follow in his father's paw prints, er...footsteps.
