Youth Dies of Shooting by Police in Gang Hunt

A youth died Friday after being shot by a police officer the night before during a gunfire-punctuated hunt for reputed gang members suspected in a drive-by shooting.

The youth was pronounced dead hours after being shot Thursday night in an armed confrontation with the officer on Alcester Street, according to Westminster police.

After the shooting, officers, aided by police dogs and helicopters, conducted a six-hour search around more than 200 houses in the neighborhood. But no additional suspects were found, said Officer Tom Broderson, a police spokesman.

Twenty-nine people have now been shot by police officers in Orange County this year, and 12 of them have died.

Police did not release the name or age of the shooting victim and were withholding other details a day after the killing. They said only that the youth was shot as Westminster police were looking for suspects in an earlier drive-by shooting at Starsia Street and Hazard Avenue.

There, one of three suspected Latino gang members in an old Ford LTD allegedly fired a small-caliber handgun at five people standing outside a corner house.

Members of the family living there asked not to be identified, but said the shooting was apparently provoked by boys fighting over the affections of a girl.

Witnesses said the three youths in the car began to argue with family members and friends gathered outside the house. Fearing violence, one person telephoned police.

“We called the officers, (telling them) ‘Come before any trouble happens,’ and while we were calling we heard the shooting,” said one family member.

Several shots were fired from the car at a group of about five young men gathered in front of the house. The gunmen drove away, only to return a minute later and fire at least three more shots, the witnesses said.

“We said: ‘Here they come again! Here they come again!’ Everybody hid,” said another family member. One bullet pierced the garage door and another struck the wall near the front door. No one was injured.

A police dispatcher heard shots fired in the background as she received the call for help, Broderson said. About 10 to 15 shots were fired in all, he added.

The drive-by shooting marked the 73rd reported act of gang violence in the city this year, the officer said.

When police patrols rushed to the area, officers found the car abandoned a short distance from the scene. But Broderson said as two officers approached the vehicle, they were fired upon by a gunman shrouded in the darkness.

Broderson said the officers, who immediately jumped for cover and were pinned down, returned the gunfire in the direction of the muzzle flashes from the shooter’s gun. Neither of the officers was hit and their bullets apparently missed the gunman as well. After the exchange, the gunman fled.

A few minutes later, another pair of officers encountered an armed youth on Alcester Street, near Sinclair Avenue. Broderson said one of the officers fired a single shot, which fatally wounded the youth. The youth apparently did not fire upon the officer and Broderson said he did not know what specifically provoked the shooting.

The youth died later at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

Like most officer-involved shootings in the county, the case was under investigation by the Orange County district attorney’s office. None of the names of the officers involved were disclosed.

Broderson said officers were investigating to determine if the youth who was shot was a suspect in the drive-by shooting or was the gunman who had previously ambushed the two officers.

The sudden violence caught residents by surprise.

Russ Allee was in the shower when he heard the shots directly outside his home at Alcester Street and Sinclair Avenue.

“I started to open the window, then I realized it was shots right outside so I decided to duck down instead,” Allee said. “Then I heard police officers shouting at other people to get back in the house, so we stayed inside.”

Police later knocked on the door and asked permission to search the back yard with dogs, he said.

Later, Allee, 29, discovered a bullet hole in the front of his house. Ballistics experts and district attorney investigators searched the intersection Friday morning for bullets.

Allee said he heard four shots. Officers later told him that one, fired from a shotgun, struck a nearby pine tree. He said they also told him the other three rounds, one of which struck his home, were fired from a 9-millimeter pistol.