Drive-by Victim Cousin of Man Slain by Police

A Westminster youth said Monday that the gunshot wound he suffered last weekend is probably gang related and not connected with a cousin’s fatal shooting by police in July.

Sunday morning’s victim, Manuel Morales, 16, said he is “pretty sure” that the drive-by shooting in his Sigler Park neighborhood is related to gang violence.

Manuel’s second cousin, Frank Martinez, 18, was shot to death by police July 15 at the home of Martinez’s parents in Sigler Park. Police said Martinez was assaulting an officer with a beer bottle when shot; the Martinez family has disputed that. The shooting is being investigated the Orange County Grand Jury.

Manuel was shot in the left arm about 2 a.m. Sunday as he was leaving a gathering of youths in the 13000 block of Cedar Street, near Westminster Boulevard.

Police said that as a car with several people in it went by, one shot was fired, then the car sped away. Friends drove Manuel to Humana Hospital-Westminster, where he was recovering Monday.

Manuel said that while he thinks he was shot by members of some gang, he does not know which gang or why the shot was fired.

“(The people in the drive-by car) might have been shooting at the group in the yard,” he said.

Manuel said he and friends had been talking in the front yard of a Cedar Street residence. He was just leaving with his 15-year-old brother, Rudy.

“I was on the sidewalk, walking towards Westminster (Boulevard), and I had turned to my little brother, who was talking to me, when the car drove by,” Manuel said. “I felt something hit my arm, and I said, ‘I’ve been shot!’ ”

Manuel, who is a junior at Wintersburg Continuation High School in Huntington Beach, said he never saw the car or the people in it.

Westminster Police Officer Tom Broderson said Monday that the incident is being investigated as possibly gang related.