Gun Attack Kills Freeway Driver in Orange

In what police believe was a random and unprovoked attack, a 22-year-old man was fatally shot on the Santa Ana Freeway in Orange early Sunday when someone in a car fired several rounds at his truck from a semiautomatic assault rifle.

Two passengers--the victim’s brother and cousin--escaped injury and managed to help steer the car off the freeway. But Juan Pedro Trujillo, a tire store worker with dreams of being a mechanic, was declared dead on arrival at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Authorities asked the public for help in locating the gunman--for whom they had no description--or his car, which witnesses believed was a blue 1980s model Oldsmobile Cutlass with tinted windows.

“It appears we have a random shooting,” said Sgt. Art Romo, spokesman for the Orange Police Department.

“There were no apparent gang ties, and we don’t have a motive. . . . There’s no indication of any problems that occurred on the freeway. Or at a restaurant earlier. It’s really too bad,” Romo said.

Returning from a Santa Ana restaurant, Trujillo was traveling north on the Santa Ana Freeway approaching the Chapman Avenue off-ramp at 3:40 a.m., his Juan Pedro Trujillo

19-year-old brother, Guillermo, and 24-year-old cousin beside him in the cab of his yellow 1973 Datsun truck.

A blue car pulled beside them, the number of its occupants unknown. Witnesses told officers there had been no flashing of headlights or tailgating, not even a shouted warning.

Guillermo Trujillo said Sunday night that he saw the car approach “going very fast.”

“I didn’t understand what was happening; I thought a tire blew,” Trujillo said. “Then I realized these were shots, my brother had been hit. I said ‘What’s happening, what’s happening?’ He began to collapse.”

Trujillo said he heard someone from the other car say: “I got one! I got one! Let’s go!” He said the car began to veer off the road and he had to grab the wheel to avoid a crash.

Police Sgt. Romo said Pedro Trujillo had been hit in the chest by rounds from a “large-caliber assault-type gun,” but he could not determine how many rounds had been fired, only to note that there were several.

The blue car continued traveling north on the freeway as Guillermo Trujillo, with help from his relatives, brought the truck to a stop at the freeway shoulder, Romo said.

Trujillo’s brother and cousin--whose name Romo said he did not know--drove Trujillo to their house in Anaheim, and police were summoned. Paramedics treated him as they were taking him to the hospital, police said.

Guillermo Trujillo said they drove his brother home instead of the hospital because they were unsure what to do.

Guillermo Trujillo said he had no idea who the attackers might be.

“We never had any problems, we never looked for problems,” he said. “Maybe they mistook us for someone else.”

Northbound lanes of the Santa Ana Freeway were closed while investigators searched the roadway for bullet casings and other evidence. No arrests had been made by Sunday night.

The death of Trujillo was thought to be the first fatal freeway shooting in Orange County since a rash of such violence swept Southern California two summers ago. Five people were killed and 16 wounded during that spate of shootings that ended 17 months ago as abruptly as they had begun.

Sunday afternoon, co-workers at Big O Tires in Santa Ana said they knew something was wrong when Trujillo, always punctual, failed to show for work that morning.

“I was waiting for Juan and finally we called his house and his sister Carmen told us,” said Mike Rangel, assistant manager of the Harbor Boulevard store near 1st Street. “I was kind of shocked at the news. Juan was not a violent person at all. He was nice, he got along with everybody. He was not in a gang and he was not the type to look for trouble. I can’t think of a reason for someone to do this.”

Rangel said Trujillo had worked for the store “off and on about a year” and lived with his sister, Carmen, and other relatives. Trujillo was single and had no children, Rangel said.

He earned $250 to $300 a week and sent part of it home to his mother in the Mexican state of Jalisco, but Rangel said his former employee had no money troubles. Trujillo had gone to visit his mother for several weeks and returned to his job about 4 1/2 months ago.

“He was the top tire installer here,” said “He was the lead guy, so he got the best hours, the peak hours. He wanted to become a mechanic. He was very mechanically inclined.

Henry Galvan, a mechanic at Big O Tires, said he met Trujillo two years ago at the shop. They were never chummy but Trujillo was “easy to get along with.”

“He wanted to open a shop in Mexico,” Galvan said. “He was sending his mom money to live off of in a town he called Avarca. He was a hard-working guy, always on time. A good guy to work with.”

It was not immediately known what funeral arrangements had been made.

Investigators asked anyone who might have seen the shooting or the car to immediately call Detective Hudson or the Orange Police Department watch commander at (714) 532-0365.

Staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report