400 in Lincoln Heights Mourn Boy Shot by Police : Funeral: Family members call for justice while a priest calls for peace and nonviolence. About 50 gang members attend the event.

In an emotional funeral Mass for a 14-year-old boy shot by a police officer, family members Wednesday wailed in grief and called for justice, while the priest spoke of peace and love.

Father Michael Gutierrez delivered his message Wednesday at Sacred Heart Church in Lincoln Heights to about 400 mourners, including 50 gang members dressed in black T-shirts commemorating the friend they knew as “Travieso,” the Spanish word for mischievous. From the front of the high-ceilinged sanctuary, Gutierrez urged the mourners to seek a “justice of compassion and peace,” invoking the names of nonviolent farm worker activists Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta.

“Have patience,” the Roman Catholic priest said with his right hand raised. “If you really want to struggle, if you really want to solve the problem--nonviolence--period.”

Law enforcement agencies are investigating the fatal July 29 shooting of Jose Antonio Gutierrez, who police say was shot as he pointed a semiautomatic pistol at an officer. His family says he was unarmed and has filed a wrongful death claim.

While guitar-accompanied hymns echoed through the church, grieving voices and cries of “Jose Antonio!” arose from the front pew where the family sat.

Afterward, a family member helped the dead youth’s mother, Maria Ana Gutierrez, down the church’s steps, across the street from a bank of cameras. She had been hospitalized after fainting several times last week.

The entourage left in a motorcade as TV news helicopters circled overhead, and traffic police guided the line of cars to the grassy slope of a Montebello cemetery, where family members sat under an awning and repeatedly uttered their gnawing questions through tears.

“If they are the law, why did they kill him?” one woman asked in Spanish. “I want justice!”

Her strained voice resonated with the frustrations of neighbors and friends who knew the boy, as well as other groups who have adopted the incident as a rallying point. Members of the Brown Berets guarded the closed circle of mourners from cameras, and representatives from the Nation of Islam said they had also come to pay their last respects.

Community leaders in Lincoln Heights have tried to diffuse tension during the past week, meeting in small groups to open communication between police, youths, parents and other residents. U.S. Justice Department officials also said they are meeting with the Police Department and overseeing the situation to prevent further outbreaks, such as the barrage of rock and bottle throwing at police on July 29-30.

Father Gutierrez, not related to the slain youth, said the healing process will take time. The 28-year-old priest, who brought food to the grieving family last week, had words of advice for the friends and relatives gathered around the coffin: “We all want justice, but work for peace.”

However, one gang member told a reporter that there had “better be justice” as a result of the police investigations. George Felix, 21, was one of several gang members who wore self-designed T-shirts that expressed their feelings toward the Police Department with a four-letter expletive.

“I’m never going to talk to a cop again,” said Felix, who had planted a kiss of consolation on the grieving mother’s cheek before laying a flower on the boy’s coffin.