Man Firing Into Apartment Kills 1 and Wounds 2

STANTON —  One man was dead and two others remained hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after they were shot by a gunman who fired into a crowded apartment and fled late Saturday.

Orange County sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call at the Continental Gardens apartment complex in the 10300 block of Fern Street at 9:34 p.m. Saturday found two men, one age 20 and the other 24, shot in the head and another, age 34, shot in the neck, Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Paramedics treated all three men at the scene and took them to local hospitals. One of the two younger men died, but his name was being withheld.

Sheriff’s Department officials said they did not know the motive for the shooting, but they do not believe that it was gang-related. Nonetheless, officials adopted an exceptionally strict policy on Sunday about releasing information on the victims for “security reasons.”

“Even though it’s not gang-related, there is some fear that whoever did the shooting is looking to shoot a particular person,” Sheriff’s Lt. Jay Mendez said. “If we release the names of all the victims, that will tell him whether he got the person he was after.”

“We don’t want to let him know if he succeeded or not. If he didn’t, we don’t want him to go to the hospital and try to finish the job.”

About 15 people were in the apartment when the gunman opened fire, then fled, Olson said. The gathering appeared to be some sort of party or meeting because the guests were sharing a meal, Mendez said.

Sheriff’s officers said a Vietnamese man is a suspect in the shootings, but they declined to say whether anyone had been arrested.

Investigators were at the scene Sunday and cordoned off the apartment. But they were hampered in their efforts to obtain information about the shootings because they did not speak Vietnamese.