THE GARDEN GROVE SHOOTINGS : Weekend Calm Is Shattered as Neighborhood’s Luck Runs Out

Like so many other Orange County neighborhoods, the one straddling Westminster Boulevard east of Euclid Avenue is normally quiet, nearly nondescript.

But unlike most Orange County neighborhoods, this one erupted in gang warfare Saturday.

To the distress of those who live there, this place is more than just a cluster of modest homes located in Garden Grove on the north side of Westminster Avenue and in Santa Ana on the south.

It also has become known unofficially as the turf of the 17th Street youth gang.

For decades, a bitter rivalry has existed between youths here and those of the 5th Street gang, whose turf is located only a few blocks to the south. In the past, the conflicts were usually carried out with fists and weren’t deadly.

But Saturday night, the rivalry became deadly in the front yard of the Fernandez family home.

“No one knows what they’re fighting about anymore,” said Frank Fernandez Sr., 22, whose 4-year-old son, Frank Jr., died in a hail of gang gunfire Saturday night. “People are fighting for things that happened 10 years ago.”

According to Frank Sr.’s brother, Felix Fernandez, 23, membership in a street gang goes with living in the gang’s turf.

“It’s just something you do when you live there,” Felix Fernandez said. “You move out--you get out of the gang.”

Ruth Macias has lived on La Bonita Avenue so long that she has affectionately become known as “Mom.” In recent years, her vigilance and that of her neighbors counteracted most of the gang influence and turf tussles that had plagued the street.

But Saturday night, gunfire shattered the stillness, killing two and wounding six a few doors from Macias’ modest home.

“I heard the gunfire and cried,” Macias said. Since the death of her husband several years ago, Macias’ oldest son had tried to persuade her to move from the family home of 45 years to a different neighborhood, one that he believed might be safer.

But Macias said most of those living along the street were solid citizens and good neighbors who mingled and watched over one another.

“I didn’t want to move,” she said. “This has been my home for as long as I can remember. I’ve raised a family here. The only trouble comes from over there,” she said, pointing at the Fernandez home.

“They’ve got people coming and going all the time. Some of us have talked about a petition to get them to quiet down, to change their ways. There’s always teen-agers and loud music. . . .”

And on Saturday night, gunfire.

Up and down La Bonita Avenue on Sunday morning, clutches of neighbors gathered to discuss the horror of the evening past. Police said the rival 5th Street gang had carried out the savage attack that felled eight people outside the Fernandez house, leaving a string of victims and sending sirens screeching into the night.

Esther Heredia was watching television, and her husband had just stepped outside to move the family car off La Bonita when she heard what sounded like firecrackers. But as the sound continued, she knew it was gunfire.

She told her daughter to “hit the floor.” All she could think about was her husband, who was somewhere near the action.

“My heart was beating like a drum,” Heredia recalled. “I just prayed he was OK.”

Her husband, shaken and confused by the events three houses away, returned safely.

Heredia is uncertain whether the working-class Latino neighborhood will ever be the same.

La Bonita is a street of small houses, where people gather outside, talk about children and the price of milk, and work on their cars in their front yards and driveways. It is a border neighborhood, less than a block from Santa Ana, tucked between a sprawling apartment complex on San Juan Place and the bustling, six-lane Westminster Boulevard.

“We know there are gangs; we know that there are problems,” said Heredia, her arm around her teen-age daughter. “But we like to think that our street is protected, is safe from that. This was too close.”

One resident, who was mowing his lawn as news photographers and camera crews from several TV stations positioned themselves across from the Fernandez house, said he half expected the trouble.

“Sooner or later it was going to spill over and touch us,” said the resident, a man in his 60s who asked that his name not be used.

“The gangs are taking over,” he said. “They shoot at will, with no regard for anyone. It’s sad, but the cops can’t control them.”

Pastor Carlo Guiterrez carried on with Sunday worship services at the neighborhood’s Bethany Evangelical Church, almost directly opposite the scene of the shooting.

Guiterrez had been unaware of the killings until a parishioner told him near the end of his last morning service.

“This is quite a shock,” he said. “It has no place in the front yards of people’s homes. Is nothing sacred? We are just going to have to work harder to stop this.

“All I can say is, pray tonight. Pray hard.”