Police Kill 1 Suspect, Arrest 3 After Wild Chase in Santa Ana

One suspect in what police are calling an attempted murder was shot to death by Santa Ana police Monday, while another broke his leg fleeing and two others were captured when a high-speed chase ended with a patrol car being rammed head on.

The chase occurred when four men fled the scene of a suspected rape and knife attack, police said.

Police declined to release the name of the 21-year-old man killed, pending notification of relatives. Police were also withholding the names of the two officers involved in the shooting until a department investigation is completed, a spokeswoman said.

The incident began at 1:45 a.m. Monday, when an officer heard a woman screaming for help in the parking lot of a shopping center at McFadden Avenue and Harbor Boulevard and was directed by a witness to the scene of a rape in progress, according to Maureen Thomas, a police spokeswoman.

The officer reported seeing three men standing over a woman who was lying on her back with her blouse ripped open, with one of the men making stabbing motions into her upper body, police said.

When the officer approached, the three men jumped into a 1979 Oldsmobile driven by a fourth man, police said, and raced away, starting a 75-m.p.h. chase that eventually ended in a Garden Grove cul de sac.

During the pursuit, the suspects’ car caromed off a parked car in the 13200 block of Havenwood Drive, continued on to the end of the cul de sac and then turned around, smashing head on into a second patrol car that had joined the chase, police said.

Police said one man jumped out of the car, ran toward the officers seemed to be reaching for something in his waistband. When the man ignored officers’ warnings in Spanish and English to stop, one of the officers fired one shot, hitting the man in the stomach. The man died hours later at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

Fernando A. Cortez, 23, who police identified as the driver of the getaway car, ran in the opposite direction, chased by a second officer who shouted in English and Spanish for him to halt. When Cortez continued, the officer fired six shots, all of which missed. Cortez then jumped a brick wall, but fell and broke his right leg and was captured.

A third suspect, Jose Argueta, 24, remained seated in the car until after the shots were fired before he ran from the scene. Caught by an officer one block away, Argueta was wrestled to the ground by an officer who broke his right hand in the scuffle.

Police said the fourth suspect, Edwardo Moya, 28, stayed in the car and was arrested without incident.

Cortez, Argueta and Moya were booked into Orange County Jail Monday on suspicion of attempted murder, police said.

The woman who was attacked suffered multiple stab wounds and was listed in serious condition Monday at the Fountain Valley Regional Hospital.

Santa Ana police have asked the Orange County District Attorney’s office to conduct an independent investigation, a police spokeswoman said.

A spokesman for the district attorney confirmed the investigation, but said his office had no details to release Monday.