May 04--CARSON, Calif. -- The 14-year-old boy who allegedly shot and killed his father, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, had fought with his dad over grades in school.
"There were some disciplinary issues in the house of which grades was one of them," Deputy District Attorney Todd Hicks said in a telephone interview.
The boy had moved into his father's house in Carson not long before the shooting, Hicks said. He had been living at his mother's house in Long Beach when the parents agreed the son would move to his dad's.
The shooting was reported Wednesday night in the 19300 block of Broadacres Avenue in Carson.
Police said the teenager used his father's ICE-issued gun and fired one shot from the backyard.
The agent, identified as Special Agent Myron W. Chisem, was in a TV room on the ground floor when he was wounded in the head, according to Lt. Holly Francisco, of the L.A. County Sheriff's Department.
The son then called 911 to report the shooting.
The 42-year old Torrance native was pronounced dead at the scene.
Based on evidence gathered at the scene and interviews with the teen, investigators identified him as the suspect.
The agent's girlfriend also lived at the house, but was not there at the time of the shooting, authorities said.
A motive for the shooting had not been determined.
"It's a tragic situation," Francisco told reporters.
She said the teen's mother was with him at the sheriff's station in Carson.
A veteran of the U.S. Navy, Special Agent Chisem had worked in the Homeland Security Investigations department since he joined the agency in 2007.
KTLA spoke to a longtime friend of the slain agent, who said the two originally met in the Navy.
"They had a good relationship as a father-son," he said. "He was very proud of his son. He loved him very much."
The friend added, "All the time that I've been around them, I've never seen any kind of issues or tension between them."
"I'm totally shocked and blown away... It's a tragedy."
About two dozen ICE agents gathered at the scene Thursday morning, some wiping away tears.
Chisem's body was placed in a coroner's van with an American flag draped over him.
"I am deeply saddened to report that one of our ICE Homeland Security Investigations special agents died tragically at his home in the Los Angeles-area overnight" ICE Director John Morton said in a statement.
"This is a difficult time for the family and loved ones of the agent, and for everyone at ICE. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers."
This was the second fatal shooting of an ICE agent in the Los Angeles area this year.
In February, a confrontation between agents at the Glenn M. Anderson Building in Long Beach ended in gunfire that left one agent dead and another seriously injured.
Authorities said Ezequiel Garcia, 45, who supervised a Document and Benefit Fraud Task Force, wounded Deputy Special Agent in Charge Kevin Kozak, 51, in his upper torso, legs.
Garcia was then shot and killed by a supervisor who intervened.
Copyright 2012 - KTLA-TV, Los Angeles
