Shoot-Out on Freeway Leaves 1 Dead, 1 Hurt

As early morning commuters streamed along the Santa Ana Freeway in Anaheim, one man was shot to death and another critically wounded Monday when gunmen in two vehicles pulled to the shoulder, jumped out and exchanged fire, authorities said.

In a dispute that apparently stemmed from a financial debt, the driver of a beige Dodge van and a passenger in a white Toyota pickup truck reportedly traded 12 to 15 shots using 9-millimeter semiautomatic handguns, Anaheim Police Lt. Marc Hedgpeth said.

Miraculously, police said, only the gunmen were hit.

Van driver Felix Rumbo Fonbona, 30, of Santa Ana was reported dead on arrival at Martin Luther Hospital Medical Center in Anaheim. Ramon Salmoran Cruz, 35, also of Santa Ana, was wounded in the chest and was in critical condition at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange. Hospital officials said Cruz is expected to live.

The driver of the pickup and two passengers in the van were questioned by police but not arrested.

Murder charges are expected to be filed against Cruz, Hedgpeth said.

Police said all of the men live in the same neighborhood and know each other.

“This was not a classic, random freeway shooting,” said Anaheim Police Lt. John Cross.

Police closed one lane of the six-lane freeway for nearly three hours--backing up traffic on a normally light holiday Monday--while investigating the shooting. They eventually obtained statements from more than a dozen witnesses who saw some part of the 8:40 a.m. gun battle.

Hedgpeth said that before the shooting, the men had met in a Santa Ana neighborhood and argued over money. But Hedgpeth said investigators have been given conflicting explanations.

According to some statements, one of the men owed money to another. But other statements indicate that both groups of men were going to collect money from a man in Los Angeles County.

“One group was trying to beat the other group up there,” Hedgpeth said.

The men got into their vehicles and headed north on the freeway, perhaps to collect from the man or--according to yet another unconfirmed account--to go to a Downey commercial nursery where they either had jobs or were seeking them. In any event, the argument escalated on the freeway.

“It looks like somebody got impatient along the way,” Police Sgt. Chet Barry said.

As they drove, the occupants of the vehicles motioned at each other to pull over, according to Hedgpeth. The drivers then pulled over near Crescent Avenue, got out and after “a brief discussion between the parties . . . shots were fired,” he said. Cruz reportedly fired first. At a nearby service station on Euclid Avenue in Anaheim, where the Toyota driver took Cruz for help, mechanic Ricardo Arana, 23, said the driver told him in Spanish that the fight was over money.

“He said it was only a problem with money, nothing else,” Arana said. “And he said that on the freeway, there was a problem.”

Arana said the man did not elaborate, asking only that an ambulance be summoned for his friend, who was in the passenger seat clutching a chest wound.

“At first, we thought he had had a heart attack,” said Arvin Patel, manager of the station. “We didn’t know what was the problem.”

Patel said he telephoned 911. Within five minutes, he said, half a dozen Anaheim police units arrived on the scene.

Anaheim detectives said they found a pistol, a spent bullet casing and a partially empty 12-pack of beer in the truck.