Trouble Not Unusual : Alley Where Shooting Occurred Is Gang Turf

The alley behind West McFadden Avenue in Santa Ana is scrawled with reminders of gang life in the inner city. Gang names-- placas --dominate the walls, fences and almost every nook where “Speedy,” “Crow” and “Slugger” have claimed turf.

The alley is also where Juan Cedilla Pinon, 20, of Santa Ana died Monday night, becoming the city’s fourth gang homicide this year and the second in two days, according to Maureen Thomas, a Santa Ana police spokeswoman.

Information about the fatal shooting is sketchy, but Thomas said Pinon was drinking beer about 10:50 p.m. with three friends in the alley just north of the 1600 block of West McFadden.

“A friend of the victim left the alley to enter his home and while he was inside he heard several shots being fired. He ran outside and found Pinon shot several times in the head and chest,” Thomas said.

Paramedics responded but Pinon was dead at the scene, she said.

“The exact circumstances are unclear right now because the other two men who were drinking with the victim were not found,” Thomas said.

Police believe that the shooting was not related to another Santa Ana fatal shooting that left Kerry Eugene Majors, 20, of Santa Ana dead and four others wounded after midnight Sunday.

“We know that both were gang-related, but the shootings were not related to each other,” Thomas said, adding that gang investigators have declined to elaborate.

Residents in the neighborhood west of the McFadden-Bristol Street intersection have had to contend with numerous drive-by shootings in addition to graffiti, investigators said.

The sporadic violence in their neighborhood has prompted Carlos and Julieta Macias, a young couple with two children, to think about moving, although they bought their home less than a year ago.

“If it’s after 8 p.m. I never go outside. Even if it’s only to go to the store to buy milk or bread,” Julieta Macias said.

Drunk Down in Front Lawn

“I never let my 11-year-old daughter go out at night. It’s too dangerous. At the store they have all these men hanging around. They don’t do anything but just stay there and bother people,” she said.

Macias said that Thursday she found a man sleeping on her front lawn and she couldn’t get him to wake up and move on.

“He was drunk. So he passed out in front of our house. Another time, we saw a man walking by and his face was all beat up. Nobody wanted to help him because we’re afraid,” Macias said.

Other neighbors said they also have had to adjust to the violence.

“This is nothing new,” said Jorge Nunez Garcia. “My home has been robbed three times and in March a carload of gang members shot down our street. We get shootings here all the time.”

Several months ago, Garcia’s family awakened to hear people jumping over their rear fence and running through their back yard.

“Something happened at a party down the block and all of a sudden we had all these people running through our yard shouting. It’s very dangerous around here,” Garcia said.

He said they call the police, who respond to emergencies, but “they don’t patrol the area enough.”

Another neighbor, whose home is next to the alley, said numerous incidents including shootings, loud parties and fights have occurred in the alley, which she described as “no-man’s land.”

“After something happens, we always get the police looking for evidence like guns that may have been thrown over our back fence,” said the woman, who did not wish to be identified.

She pleaded: “Please don’t go putting my name in the newspaper. I work nights and my mother is here alone. We don’t need any trouble.”