Woman Is Wounded In Face : Two Held After Air Rifle Pellets Hit Car

Two Santa Ana men were arrested on suspicion of shooting into a vehicle with intent to injure after a woman was struck in the cheek with one of at least four air rifle pellets the pair allegedly fired at passing cars, authorities said Friday.

The men, Michael Scott McPherson, 20, and Fredrick William Farish, 21, admitted shooting into cars from a window in McPherson’s home and were booked into the Orange County Jail on the vehicle code violation, a felony charge that carries $5,000 bail, said sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Dick Olson. Both were released on their own recognizance.

The woman, a 62-year-old El Toro resident, was not further identified. She was treated and released from Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Olson said.

The lieutenant said the sniping was first reported to deputies about 3 p.m. Thursday when a pellet hit the woman as she drove her car along the 13000 block of Prospect Avenue.

He said the woman drove down the street and used a resident’s phone to call authorities.

Olson said that as a sheriff’s deputy spoke with the woman, he was notified on the radio of three more sniping complaints from callers who said their windshields and side car window glass had been damaged in the same area.

At that time, the deputy reportedly saw two men down the street who were watching him before they went inside a home, Olson said. The deputy questioned four men at the home and arrested McPherson and Farish, who Olson said “admitted they had done the firing from an upstairs open window” of McPherson’s home at 13541 Prospect Ave.