Shooting Stirs Debate on Gang Activity in South Orange County : Crime: Some officials and residents fear Christmas Eve’s wounding of girl, 4, portends an increase in violence. Others disagree.

While law-enforcement and city officials were debating whether there is truly a South County gang problem, the family and friends of a 4-year-old girl wounded in a drive-by shooting on Christmas Eve were saying that the attack is all the proof they need.

“They are crazy, they are crazy,” said friend and neighbor Bertha Valdez about activities of gang members that she maintains live in San Clemente, Capistrano Beach and San Juan Capistrano.

The wounded girl, Prisca Lorena Caudillo, was on the second-floor balcony of a neighbor’s apartment when she was hit by gunfire from a passing car about 7:30 p.m. Jova Caudillo, Prisca’s mother, said Wednesday that the family is still struggling to come to grips with the event. Jova Caudillo and her husband, Rodrigo, have three other children ranging from 6 months to 6 years old. Prisca remains hospitalized at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

“The children have been asking for their sister,” Jova Caudillo said. “They just want her to come home.”

Prisca is scheduled to be released Friday, her mother said.

“We’re going to throw her a party with lots of gifts,” Valdez said.

Prisca was moved from the intensive care unit to the pediatric ward Wednesday, hospital spokeswoman Jan Walker said. Her condition was listed as fair.

Although Jova Caudillo said that she fears for the safety of her family, she and her husband have decided that they will not move from their north San Clemente neighborhood.

San Clemente police officials say that at least one street gang exists in the city, but they stress that they are not sure the drive-by shooting was gang-related.

“We can’t say definitely one way or another,” Police Sgt. Richard Downing said Wednesday. “Drive-by shootings are primarily done by gangs. However, we haven’t linked this shooting to a specific gang.”

Police had speculated earlier that the shooting could have been the result of a feud between the Varrio Chico gang of San Clemente and the San Juan Boys, also called the SJC Boys, of San Juan Capistrano.

No motive has been determined for the attack, and no suspects have been identified, police said. The attack is believed to be the first drive-by shooting to result in an injury in San Clemente and possibly anywhere in the South County, authorities said.

Some officials deny that gangs exist in the area. They agree, however, that groups of males ages 13 to 20 have been emulating the elements of gang life seen in some areas of Northern Orange County and in Los Angeles County. These include wearing tattoos, associating solely with each other and engaging in petty crime.

“I really look at them as wanna-bes,” Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Bob Rivas said. “I don’t see them as major gangs. I do not put them in that category.”

Until now, police and social service workers who acknowledge that there is gang activity in the South County said that gang-related crime was largely limited to minor property damage, drug abuse and fistfights among gang members.

Some city officials and residents say the Christmas Eve attack may be a sign of growing friction between members of rival gangs.

“I’m concerned that we may see an escalation (of violence) . . . in gangs that have never been violent before,” San Clemente City Councilman Scott Diehl said. “So many of us say gang activity is in Los Angeles and Santa Ana, but with the freeway system, any area can be affected.”

Anthony Borbon, a spokesman for the Garden Grove-based Turning Point gang-prevention project, said there have been gangs in the South County for years, and he agreed that they have long shunned firearms.

“I must say I was really surprised” by the shooting, Borbon said.

San Clemente Police Sgt. James Thomas said that the “potential is always there” for gang members to graduate from baseball bats to guns.

The shooting incident may have been the first in which somebody was injured, Thomas said, but it was not the first in the city.

“We’ve had a few incidences where there were shots fired from one vehicle to another vehicle, but fortunately no one was hurt,” Thomas said.

Although Sheriff’s Department spokesmen said they have turned up no evidence that the shooting was staged by gang members from San Juan Capistrano, witnesses and residents said they heard the assailants shouting “San Juan! San Juan!”

“The San Juan boys were the ones who did it,” said a 17-year-old San Clemente resident who asked to be identified only as Juan. “They just don’t like” San Clemente Varrio Chico, he said.

Standing in front of a run-down apartment building marred with graffiti marking the turf of Varrio Chico, Juan pointed to a blown-out van window. “They shot that van too,” Juan said. “I live right here; I see a lot things that go on.”

Lt. Rivas said the Sheriff’s Department, which covers San Juan Capistrano under contract with the city, is investigating whether the SJC Boys were involved in the Christmas Eve shooting. He said the reported shouts of “San Juan!” by the assailants are the only evidence linking that gang to the shooting.

“Anybody could go along and say that,” Rivas said. “We can’t say that, yes, they (the San Juan Boys) were or that, no, they weren’t involved.”

San Clemente police had said there was a report of gunfire in San Juan Capistrano hours after Prisca was shot, but Rivas said deputies have no evidence that there was, and that they have not received any report from residents in the area. “I think that report was a little premature,” Rivas said.

San Juan Capistrano Mayor Gary L. Hausdorfer said that the San Juan Boys have existed for years but that they have long kept a low profile and have not marked territory with graffiti.

San Clemente police said that they have increased patrols in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred and that they will continue to patrol the area more frequently until the investigation is closed.

San Clemente Mayor Candace Haggard said she is outraged over the shooting.

“I was stunned when I heard the magnitude of what happened,” Haggard said. “We can’t have a gang problem. This has to be stopped right here.”