Students Flee Picnic in Panic as Youth Is Shot

A quiet picnic for nearly 100 Orange County high school and college students at Laguna Niguel Regional Park was thrown into an uproar Monday when an unknown gunman shot a 15-year-old youth in the leg and other students fled the scene in panic.

The students, who are members of the China Club, a group representing high schools and colleges throughout the county, told police that they heard at least one gunshot at 2:30 p.m., then saw that a youth had been shot in the leg, said Lt. Russ Elsner of the Sheriff’s Department.

Moments before the shooting, the students had been gathered near small cabanas and picnic tables in the park at 28241 La Paz Road for an outing on what was a school holiday to observe Veterans Day.

Suddenly, several of them spotted a weapon in the hands of an unidentified gunman and began rushing from the scene, according to onlookers. After the shot was fired, “they were all running . . . there was a real panic,” one observer said.

Sheriff’s deputies responding to the incident immediately began searching the park. Investigators had no suspects or motive for the shooting and were still interviewing witnesses, Elsner said.

The unidentified victim, who is from Santa Ana, was taken to Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, where nursing officials listed him in fair condition with a bullet wound in the back of his right leg near the calf.

Later in the day, officials also were checking to determine whether another patient admitted to a Santa Ana hospital with a bullet wound might be related to the Laguna Niguel shooting, Elsner said.