Pair Wounded in 5th Drive-by Shooting in 16 Days in Santa Ana

Two Santa Ana youths were wounded late Wednesday in a drive-by gang shooting--the city’s third in a week, police said Thursday. A total of five such incidents have occurred in the last 16 days.

Police say the onset of summer means more people out on the streets, including gang members. But they refused to comment Thursday on whether the recent outburst of gang-related violence is a coincidence or a sign of trouble brewing.

Names of the victims were not released, police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said, “so as not to jeopardize the investigation and for the protection of them and their families.”

Officers would not identify the gangs allegedly involved “because we don’t want to give them any notoriety,” Thomas said. “It also might trigger a retaliation.”

Police said Thursday that they had no suspects or motives for any of the shootings.

The most recent victims, boys aged 13 and 16, were standing in an alley behind an apartment in the 2500 block of West McFadden Avenue about 11:40 p.m. Wednesday when they were shot from the window of a passing vehicle, police said.

The youngest victim was wounded in the chest and taken to Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, where he was listed in serious but stable condition.

The older boy was wounded in the right forearm, officials said. He was treated at UCI Medical Center and released.

Santa Ana is the home of at least eight Latino gangs, which have been relatively dormant in recent years compared with those in areas such as Los Angeles.

‘Quite Unusual’

Each of the attacks this month involved gang members--either as suspects or victims--but Thomas said she did not know if all the victims were gang members. Generally, she said, gang members do not prey on non-gang members.

“It is quite unusual to have this many in just a few days,” Thomas said.

In an incident Tuesday night, three persons were hit by bullets fired from a moving vehicle as they stood in an alley carport in the 700 block of South Cedar Street.

Thomas said Luis Garcia, 18, and Optavio Trejo, 20, both of Santa Ana, suffered gunshot wounds in the legs and were treated and released from Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.

A 16-year-old boy with them--who was not identified--was shot in the “upper torso,” Thomas said, and remained in serious condition Thursday at Western Medical Center.

In the first of the recent gang incidents, during the early morning hours of June 10, a man was shot in the head while driving along Harbor Boulevard. Police said two men drove up beside him and fired a shot through the victim’s open left window. The bullet passed through the driver’s baseball cap, creased the top of his skull and left him with what police described as a minor wound.

Five days later, on June 17, a shooting match erupted at a church carnival between rival gangs, and a 10-year-old bystander was seriously wounded. The boy had no relationship with either gang, police said.

Boy Wounded in Neck

As Noe Lazaro of Santa Ana played a ring-toss game at Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, he and his family heard gunfire break out. As the crowd scattered, Noe was struck in the neck by a bullet.

The shooting, according to a witness, may have been in retaliation for a knife attack at the fiesta earlier the same day.

Last Thursday, a man and woman, both 19, were pelted by a shotgun blast from a passing car as they stood in front of a house in the 600 block of East Central Avenue, Thomas said. Gilbert Rodillo of Santa Ana and Cindy Torres of Anaheim were treated at a nearby hospital and released, police said.

Though investigators released the names of juvenile victims in the earlier gang shootings, they were refusing this week to identify the victims of the more recent attacks.