Anaheim Boy Shot to Death From Auto : No One Injured in Similar, Unrelated Incident in Newport

A teen-age boy was killed and his 20-year-old companion injured when the pair were hit by shots fired from a car early Sunday morning, Anaheim police said.

Ruben Suarez, 16, of Anaheim was shot once in the chest and died about an hour after he was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, said Anaheim Police Sgt. Jack Jansen. His companion, Martin Viramontes, 20, also of Anaheim, was shot in the finger and was treated and released.

Jansen said the drive-by shooting occurred about 1:30 a.m., after Suarez and Viramontes had left a party in the neighborhood of Emily and Cypress streets.

Details Unknown

As the two stood talking on Emily Street, a car drove by and several shots were fired, police said. It is not known what kind of gun was used or how many persons were in the car.

The incident occurred near the parking lot of the Salvation Army’s Anaheim offices.

Although Jansen would not confirm that the incident was gang-related, he did say that members of the Anaheim police gang detail are working with homicide investigators to determine the gunmen’s identities.

In an unrelated drive-by incident in Newport Beach, four teen-age boys were apprehended after they fired 11 bullets from an automatic weapon into the front door of a Newport Beach residence where they earlier had been ejected from a party, police said Sunday.

No one was hurt in that incident, police said.

The four--16-year-old twin brothers from Newport Beach and two unrelated 17-year-old friends from Tustin--were taken into custody Saturday morning. Police withheld their names because they are juveniles.

The shooting occurred about 11:30 p.m. Friday at the home of Dean Kennedy, 20, in the 200 block of 30th Street as he was entertaining about eight people, said Newport Beach Police Detective Greg Armstrong. Two of the bullets penetrated the door, and others ricocheted and went through the window of an adjacent apartment, he said.

Told to Leave Party

He said the four had earlier been at Kennedy’s party and had been told to leave. During the discussion, “there was a shoving match,” Armstrong said. They returned, armed with a submachine gun, similar to an Uzi, “to show them who was boss,” Armstrong said.

Police located the car believed used in the shooting outside the twins’ Newport Beach home. Three of the suspects were apprehended after leaving the house about 8 a.m. Saturday, and the fourth was taken into custody later, he said. The automatic weapon, equipped with a silencer, was confiscated, he said.

Two of the youths--one twin and one 17-year-old--were released to the custody of their parents and the other two remain in Juvenile Hall, Armstrong said.