Man Injured During Burglary at Santa Ana Gun Shop

Santa Ana police, responding to a silent burglar alarm Sunday afternoon, surrounded a closed gun shop and found a burglary suspect injured on the building roof, Lt. Bob Jordan said.

Jose Alvarez Sanchez, 20, of Santa Ana was arrested on suspicion of burglary and rushed to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where efforts were being made late Sunday to find a surgical specialist to treat severe gashes to his right arm and fingers of his right hand, Jordan said.

Stanley’s Gun Room in the 2100 block of South Main Street was surrounded and a police dog team called in to search for additional suspects, but none was found. Jordan said a box of “25 to 30 handguns” that had been pushed out a small hole made in the building’s outer wall was recovered.

Police said the suspect apparently climbed onto the roof of the gun shop and sporting goods store, crawled into a ventilation shaft and cut a hole in the sheet metal to enter a crawl space between the roof and ceiling. It was in cutting the metal that Sanchez cut himself, Jordan said.

Once in the crawl space, Sanchez cut through the ceiling and entered the store. He then made a hole in an outer wall just large enough to push the box of handguns outside. At this point, a silent burglar alarm was set off at 4:59 p.m., Jordan said.

Meanwhile, he retraced his steps back to the roof, where police found Sanchez when they arrived. Jordan said the Santa Ana Fire Department was called to furnish a ladder to get Sanchez off the roof.