Anaheim : Investigation Continues Into Motel Shootings

A 17-year-old Utah boy who was found shot in the face at an Anaheim motel last weekend had not been able to provide much information to police by Monday.

Police said they were still trying to understand the circumstances surrounding his shooting and the fatal shooting of a 30-year-old transient discovered with the youth Saturday morning at the Tops Motel on South Harbor Boulevard.

A coroner’s spokesman identified the transient as Joe Izaguirre, 30. Izaguirre died later Saturday at UCI Medical Center in Orange of a wound to the head that was self-inflicted, the coroner’s spokesman said. He said a nine-millimeter handgun was used in the shooting.

The wounded teen-ager, now at Anaheim Memorial Hospital where he was expected to undergo surgery, was on vacation with his parents when the shooting occurred, Police Lt. Pete De Paola said. De Paola declined to identify him because of his age. The youth and his parents reportedly were staying at a different motel, the Carousel Inn, when the shooting occurred.

De Paola said the youth can speak with great difficulty but could only give investigators a brief account of what had happened. Since the information so far was “relatively minimal,” the investigation was continuing, De Paola said.