Santa Ana Youth Hit by Gunfire From Car

A 14-year-old boy riding in the back of a pickup truck was critically wounded Friday night in a burst of gunfire from another car in an area of central Santa Ana where residents say gang crime is growing.

The shooting occurred at 10:40 p.m. in the 1300 block of North Sullivan Street, when a car pulled up behind the pickup truck and the driver of the car began flashing his headlights, according to Santa Ana police. A passenger then leaned from the car window and fired on the truck.

Two passengers in the rear of the truck ducked, but a third--Jose Saldana of Santa Ana--did not react quickly enough, according to Sgt. John Dittus. Saldana remained in critical condition Saturday at United Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. No one else was injured, Dittus said.

Drug Hangout

No description of the car from which the shots were fired was available Saturday, and police said they had not determined whether the incident was gang-related.

The shooting occurred about five blocks south of a Sullivan Street drug hangout where police in the last two weeks have made several arrests in a narcotics crackdown. Mayor Daniel H. Young, who reacted to protests from operators of a day-care center across the street from an apartment complex where much of the drug trafficking took place, promised intensive police action and a program to repair or demolish vacant houses in the area.

The 1300 block of North Sullivan Street, with its modest but manicured ranch homes, is in an area that has become unsafe at night because of a growing gang problem, residents there said. Nighttime gunfire frequently erupts along surrounding side streets in the mostly Latino neighborhood of middle- and low-income residents, they said.

“In the last five years, it’s a mess,” said Fernand Van der Roest, who has lived on the block since 1960. “You hear gunshots from the other streets around here, and there are always cars screeching by like it was a freeway.”

Van der Roest said he was watching the television news with the curtains drawn Friday night when he heard racing cars and then gunshots on the street in front of his house. By the time he got to the window, he said, he could only see a truck and a car speeding away.

“I heard six or seven shots, one after another,” Van der Roest said. “I didn’t know if they were shooting in the air or at someone.”

Another longtime resident of the block, who asked not to be identified, said she also heard the shots, but did not see the incident. Increasing gang activity in the area has forced most residents into their homes at sundown, she said.

“I try not to be paranoid, but it’s getting worse and worse,” she said. “I just stay inside and try not to get involved.”