'Beautiful, tragic naivety': Mom of Ogden student killed in shooting forges forward with a message

TAYLOR, Weber County — Ten months following the killing of her son, days shy of what would be his 17th birthday, Leslie Caballero still struggles.

"It is extremely tough. I don't think I've accepted that he has passed away," she said.

Nevertheless, she forges ahead, attending many, if not most, of the court hearings of the two young suspects in the Oct. 7, 2025, killing of her son Mason Caballero, a Ben Lomond High School 10th grader. She also does what she can to maintain other aspects of her life, as difficult as it is. Mason would want it that way.

"I might look put together, but I am so far from put together. If I do not put myself together, I will not go to work," she said from the living room of her new home of two months in Taylor in western Weber County. "I would not enjoy my grandchildren. I would not enjoy my children. My marriage would suffer."

Moreover, as she tries to make sense of the tragedy, if at all possible, she's honing a message meant for parents — be involved in your children's lives, know their friends, stress to them the importance of being mindful of those around them. Mason, whose birthday is Aug. 15, belonged to the Junior ROTC program at Ben Lomond and, coming from a family with many military members, aspired to join the U.S. Marine Corps.

"Help your children understand that the people they surround themselves with are a reflection of who they are — and a predictor of where they are going," she wrote in a social media post last February. "You can be a 'good kid' and still be destroyed by the 'bad paths' of those you call friends."

Mason was shot and killed last October in a residential neighborhood near Highland Junior High after the car he was riding in came under unexpected fire from two teenage gunmen giving chase in another vehicle, according to authorities and charging papers. Both suspects were linked to gangs, according to charging papers, and Leslie Caballero understands that one of the other occupants in the vehicle with her son had dubious connections in the community and was the alleged target of the attack.

Her son was not linked to gang activity, she said, and other family members had warned her of the friend. Even before the Oct. 7 incident, she had cautioned her son to be careful about his associations. "We had told him several times, 'Mason, show me your friends and I'll show you your future,'" she said.

Mason, in response, defended his friend and stressed the importance of focusing on the good in people. Both the driver and second passenger in the vehicle carrying Mason were uninjured in the Oct. 7 incident.

"Mason looked me dead in my eyes, with all seriousness, and said, 'Everybody deserves a good friend, and I'm going to be that good friend,'" she said. "He wanted to have all his friends succeed, you know, make something of themselves ... Pretty much told me, 'Don't be judgmental until you know the full story.'"

'A rare soul'

Looking back, the turn of events pains her, particularly the notion that Mason's openness to others seemingly figured in his downfall, despite her involvement and cautionary advice.

"Mason was a rare soul. He loved everyone, and he moved through the world with a beautiful, tragic naivety. He believed that everyone deserved a good friend, and he offered his friendship freely to those who didn't necessarily value it," Caballero wrote in her social media post. Mason, she continues, "saw the world through a lens of grace" and in death was "an innocent passenger in a life he didn't choose."

For now, Caballero is trying to get through court proceedings involving the two suspects. Officials found 25 shell casings in all at the site of the incident, including 14 in front of the ex-Bonneville Elementary School building, which now houses another program geared to older students. Another eight were found in front of Highland just to the north, about a half-mile from Ben Lomond High School.

Isaias Emanuel Carranza, 16 when the incident occurred and now 17, is being tried as an adult and faces 29 charges in all. The counts include aggravated murder and two counts of attempted aggravated murder, all of them first-degree felonies with potential gang enhancement penalties. He's next to appear in court on Sept. 8 for a pretrial conference.

The other suspect, who KSL is not naming because he's being tried in juvenile court, faces the same 29 counts. The varied charges include 25 counts of felony discharge of a firearm, a first-degree felony, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a minor, a second-degree felony, all with potential gang enhancement penalties. The Weber County Attorney's Office is hoping to try the teen as an adult and several days of hearings are set for October to decide the issue, according to Weber County Attorney Chris Allred.

Through it all, Caballero does what she can to get her message out to parents about maintaining lines of communication with their kids. She kept the conversation going with Mason, though he seemed to have his own ideas.

"Keep the conversation alive. Even when they roll their eyes, keep reminding them that their circle defines their safety," she wrote. "Please, use our tragedy to save your own child. Teach them that while everyone deserves kindness, not everyone earns the right to be in your inner circle."

Sometimes, though, getting through each day is all she can muster.

Before going to bed each night, she prays she can have "a peaceful night of sleep and not replay images in my head that no mother should see," she said. "Do I want to dream about my son? I do. But even with a dream comes heartache because you wake up and you know he's not there."

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