2 Arrested in Slaying of 82-Year-Old Woman in Gang-Related Shooting

A 17-year-old youth and a 20-year-old man have been arrested on suspicion of murder in the gang-related shooting of an elderly woman in her home a week ago, Buena Park police said Saturday.

Cornelia Mitchell, 82, was hit in the chest by a stray bullet fired from a passing pickup truck at a gang member as he ran through her front yard, police said.

The juvenile, whose name was not released because of his age, was arrested Friday night after authorities served arrest and search warrants at three residences in Anaheim at about 8:15 p.m., Officer Rich McMillen said. Two of the residences are in the 3100 block of Polk Avenue, and the third--where the juvenile was arrested--is in the 3100 block of Monroe Avenue, he said.

In addition, Fernando Rivera, who lived at one of the Polk Avenue addresses, was arrested shortly after midnight Saturday when he came into the Buena Park police station to contact an undercover officer, McMillen said. The officer had left a message with other gang members that he wanted Rivera to contact him, McMillen said.

The undercover officer was not in, and instead, Rivera was arrested, he said.

Warrants Served Friday

The warrants were served Friday night by a number of authorities, including Buena Park’s newly formed hostage rescue team, undercover and homicide officers and the Orange County district attorney’s new gang unit. The warrants were obtained from information received from witnesses to the crime and “other informed” people, he said.

Additional suspects are being sought. McMillen said authorities have arrest warrants for at least two more suspects, whom he did not identify. He did not know what the search warrants served Friday night yielded.

Mitchell had been sitting in her living room at about 11:30 p.m. May 28 when she was apparently drawn to her door by shouted insults between members of two gangs. A bullet pierced her front door and felled her before she could unlock the door, police said. The wounded woman was discovered by a neighbor who had heard the shots. She died two hours later during surgery at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

The target of the gunfire, Arrizon Clemente, 17, of Buena Park, a member of the Los Coyotes gang, was wounded in the arm by one of the up to eight shots fired from a pickup truck carrying rival Eastside gang members, police said.

According to police and witnesses, Clemente was in the back seat of a car that had pulled up across the street from the Mitchell home, at the corner of Kingman Avenue and 9th Street. He and two girls in the front seat had stopped to speak with four boys in a car parked directly outside the Mitchell home on Kingman Avenue.

Passenger Began Firing

A small brown pickup, traveling on 9th Street, passed by the cars. Clemente exchanged insults with four to six occupants of the truck, police said. The truck then made a U-turn on 9th Street and headed back toward the two cars. Clemente got out of the car. As the truck passed by the Mitchell front yard, a passenger leaned across the driver and began firing out of the driver’s window at Clemente, police said.

Clemente ran for cover and passed by Cornelia Mitchell’s door as shots were being fired, police said.

The 17-year-old arrested in the case was taken to Juvenile Hall, and Rivera was placed in Orange County Jail, McMillen said.

Another Buena Park police spokesman said he did not know if the juvenile or Rivera had been driving the truck.