Wound Is Fatal to Club Guard : Shooting: Police seek drive-by gunman who opened fire on crowd outside Casa Palma in Santa Ana.

SANTA ANA — Police Monday continued searching for the gunman who opened fire from a car on people standing outside a bar and restaurant Sunday night, killing one man and wounding four other people.

The drive-by shooter may have been one of two men denied admittance to the Casa Palma by security guards about 10 p.m. Sunday, Sgt. Art Echternacht said. Minutes later, a black car pulled out of the restaurant’s rear parking lot and passed in front of the restaurant.

A gunman fired about five bullets from a small caliber handgun, hitting the five people. The driver then sped away.

Security guard Alejandro Sandoval, 22, of Santa Ana, died about 7:30 a.m. Monday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, police said. Another security guard, Jaime Vasquez, 26, was shot in the head also and was in critical condition at the same hospital, police said.

Also injured were security guard Manuel Galina, 38, of Santa Ana, waitress Cecilia Carranco, 21, of Garden Grove, and customer Anselmo Picaso, 29, of Santa Ana. They were released Monday morning from UCI Medical Center in Orange after treatment of bullet wounds, officials said.

No one has been arrested.

“This has been a tragedy for us,” said Aida Sanchez, co-owner of Casa Palma at 17th and Bush streets. Sanchez said she didn’t know what led to the shooting or why the two men had been refused admittance.

“What we are sure of is someone drove up and began shooting at the place,” she said.

Carranco, whose legs were heavily bandaged, said she remembered little of the attack.

“I felt my legs get hot and then I knew I was hit.”

Carranco, who began working at the restaurant two weeks ago, said she did not see the men who were turned away at the door.

Some neighbors in the area said they were not surprised at the violence. Oscar Reyes, whose third-story apartment room overlooks the intersection, said that on many weekend nights, dozens of men--sometimes brandishing guns--fight or sell drugs in the parking lot behind the restaurant or in a parking lot across Bush Street which the restaurant operates.

“At night, there’s a lot of noise,” Reyes said.

But Sanchez defended her restaurant.

“The people that come here do not come for trouble,” she said. “Those that come to dance do not cause problems.”

She said the troublemakers are those whom the security guards keep out or people who live in the area that use the parking lots for drug sales.

Santa Ana police said they get few calls about troubles at Casa Palma, Echternacht said. “This appears to be one of those fluke things,” he said.