3 Escape After Chase, Gunfire in Santa Ana

A quiet Santa Ana neighborhood turned into a battleground Tuesday as a police attempt to stop a stolen car set off a gun battle and a high-speed chase. Before it was over, one man had been wounded, a woman had been abducted from her home and a Placentia bank had been robbed.

Police were still searching Tuesday night for the wounded man as well as two others involved in part of the incident.

“Obviously, he was willing to go to great lengths to not be apprehended,” Santa Ana Police Lt. Bob Chavez said of the wounded man.

It began about 10:15 a.m. when a Santa Ana police officer pulled over a blue 1974 Oldsmobile, which he believed to be stolen, in the 200 block of West 18th Street, Chavez said.

Radioed Dispatcher First

The officer told the police dispatcher that he was making a potentially dangerous “felony stop,” then approached the car, in which there were three men, Chavez said.

The driver pulled a handgun on the officer and fired twice, missing him, Chavez said. The officer rolled onto the ground and took cover behind his patrol car, returning fire as the Oldsmobile sped away. The officer called for assistance and chased the car.

“The suspect’s car was weaving in and out of traffic at speeds of up to 60 m.p.h.,” Chavez said.

As the car turned north on Broadway, Chavez said, a man leaned out of the passenger side of the Oldsmobile and fired at the pursuing officers. The car then headed east on Santa Clara Avenue and turned into an apartment complex, where two of the men got out, Chavez said. The driver of the Oldsmobile then sped off.

One of the men who got out of the car commandeered a Southern California Edison repair truck, leaving the driver and a co-worker unharmed. Officers spotted the truck later near the intersection of Flower Street and Memory Lane, where police again gave chase.

As officers closed in on the truck, the man who commandeered it fired at least three shots, shattering the police car’s back window, Chavez said. Police fired back, striking the man in his left arm.

Broke Into Woman’s Apartment

The wounded man then abandoned the truck and broke into a home on Orange Road before going to a nearby apartment complex on North Bristol Street, where he broke into the apartment of an unidentified woman, Chavez said.

The woman was taken in her car, a red Toyota, and was driven to the corner of 1st Street and Grand Avenue, where she was left unharmed. The man then drove off in her car.

Later, a wounded man driving a car that matched the description of her Toyota entered the Mitsubishi Bank at 111 E. Yorba Linda Blvd. in Placentia and demanded cash, threatening to “kill the teller,” Placentia Police Lt. Chuck Babcock said.

The robber got away with $3,000 to $6,000, Babcock estimated.

Dogs Tracked Scent

Later in the day, the missing Oldsmobile was found parked at the train station in Santa Ana, where dogs were used to track the driver’s scent to a nearby parking lot. There, police found that another car had been stolen.

The Toyota stolen from the woman was found in the 900 block of North Custer Street. Bloodhounds led police to a nearby market, where a wounded man apparently bought bandages. The dogs then led police to a house on Logan Street, just north of Stanford Street, where a sheriff’s special-weapons team searched for but did not find any suspects.

About 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, police surrounded a house in the 10000 block of North Custer and ordered six adults and two children outside.

Chavez said the occupants, who admitted that the wounded man had been in the home earlier in the day, are being questioned.

Police said the man who commandeered the truck apparently received three wounds and still has a .45-caliber slug in his arm, Chavez said.

Neighbors Frightened

Residents of the neighborhood where the gunfire began--near the Bowers Museum--said they were startled by the sound of gunfire and helicopters overhead during the incident. One resident said she was warned by a helicopter loudspeaker to stay in her home.

“I heard helicopters,” Mike Isaacs said. “There were police with shotguns who yelled, ‘Get back inside unless you want to get shot!’ ”

Some were at work when the shooting occurred and came home when they heard news of trouble in the neighborhood.

Martha Cook said, “I got a phone call from a neighbor saying a SWAT team was in my yard, and I was concerned about my animals, so I came home.”

She found window panes broken and blood on her porch when she got home.

Margaret Riley said she was going home to pick up her children and saw her house surrounded by police. Her husband, who was at the house, saw police driving down the street “hanging out of their cars with shotguns,” she said.

“I was petrified--my kids were here,” Karen Flecky said. “I was scared to death.”

Times staff writers Mariann Hansen and Barbara Taylor contributed to this report.