Gang Member Held in Sunday Slaying on Santa Ana Street

Santa Ana police arrested a teen-age gang member Tuesday in the slaying of 19-year-old Steven Iturbide, who was shot to death last weekend while walking home from a convenience store with friends.

Joel Gaytan, 18, was arrested at his family’s apartment in the 900 block of South Townsend Street about 7:30 a.m., Santa Ana police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said. He was booked into Orange County Jail and was being held on $250,000 bail.

Officers said he is a member of a youth gang, which they would not identify.

Thomas said police had a search warrant for the apartment, but she could not say whether police recovered a weapon at the residence or what type of gun was used to kill Iturbide.

Opposing Gangs

Iturbide was shot once in the head Sunday night on South Standard Avenue after four youths, believed to be Loper gang members, confronted him and his friends, who are affiliated with the F-Troop gang. He died early Monday in a local hospital.

Witnesses identified Gaytan as the gunman, Thomas said. Police are still seeking three accomplices.

The shooting was the eighth gang-related killing in Santa Ana this year, contrasted with five last year.

Gaytan’s mother, Trinidad Gaytan, who supports eight children by working at a hotel in Irvine, had already left for work before police arrived. Tuesday afternoon, she said she still did not know why police had arrested her son, who worked at a plastics factory.

“Right now, I don’t know anything,” she said in Spanish. “What should I think about it all?”

Other family members also said they knew few details of the arrest and barely flinched when told by a reporter that Gaytan had been arrested for murder. Raul Gaytan, Joel’s 20-year-old brother, continued fixing the doorjam, which had been damaged when police entered the apartment. Trinidad Gaytan looked worried but said nothing right away.

Family members could not say where Joel Gaytan had been Sunday night.

Suspect Arrested Before

Gaytan’s mother said her son had been arrested before, but she did not know the charges. State Department of Motor Vehicle records showed that Gaytan had been cited for driving without a license, driving with no registration, and, on at least one occasion, had failed to appear in court on the charges.

Gaytan’s 16-year-old brother was also arrested Tuesday morning, but Thomas said he was held on an unrelated probation violation.

Trinidad Gaytan said she did not know whether her son is a gang member. “I work and am gone so much, I really don’t know,” she said.

Then she added: “They go to church; they don’t do those things anymore.”

Andrea Iturbide, mother of the murder victim, said police told her of Gaytan’s arrest Tuesday. She said she was not sure what to make of the news, adding:

“I don’t know what to say. Maybe now is not the time.”