17-Year-Old Shot After School; 4 Boys Arrested

A 17-year-old boy died Tuesday after being shot as he walked home from El Modena High School in Orange, police said.

Four boys were arrested several hours later in connection with the crime, including a 16-year-old from Santa Ana who a police spokesman said had been “positively identified as the shooter.�

“There appeared to have been a dispute at the school,� said Sgt. Barry Weinstein, a spokesman for the Orange Police Department. “The victim was involved in that dispute with other students.�

The shooting did not appear to be gang related, he said. He could not confirm whether the assailants, all apparently juveniles, also attended El Modena.

Police said they were withholding the identity of the dead student pending notification of his relatives. They also declined to identify the four suspects, all of whom were being held at the Orange police station on Tuesday night on suspicion of murder.

Weinstein said the victim was walking home from school in the 300 block of North Swidler Street about 2:50 p.m. when he was approached by several boys who had been waiting for him in a white car parked nearby. One of them immediately fired several shots, then fled with the others in the car, police said.

The victim was taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was pronounced dead, Weinstein said.

Police stopped the white car at about 6:30 p.m. near Fairview Avenue and 17th Street in Santa Ana. The car and suspects were identified, Weinstein said, through “hard work by about 10 investigators following up leads.�

The shooting is still under investigation, he said, and more arrests could be made. “We are working around the clock and following several leads,� he said.

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Times staff writer Peter M. Warren contributed to this report.