Another Youth Killed in Drive-By Attack : Shootings: A 15-year-old died and his companion was wounded in the second incident within two days in Santa Ana. Both are believed to be gang-related.

Little more than 24 hours after a teen-ager was shot to death by suspected gang members at a party, a 15-year-old boy attending another party a few blocks away was fatally shot and his companion wounded in a drive-by attack Sunday that police say also had gang ties.

Youths identified by family members as Cesar Salgado, 15, and companion Javier Torres, 18, were shot about 12:50 a.m. near a birthday party they were attending in the 600 block of East Walnut Street.

One or more people in a passing vehicle opened fire on the two as they walked on a sidewalk in the 100 block of South Hickory Street, Police Sgt. Randy Eldridge said. Salgado, shot three times in the side, was pronounced dead at UCI Medical Center in Orange at 3:10 a.m. Sunday. Torres, shot once in the back, was in stable condition Sunday at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana.

Friday night, 17-year-old Roger Ochoa died after being shot four times in the back during a fight with suspected gang members at a party in the 1200 block of East 3rd Street, about nine blocks away from the Sunday morning shooting site.

While investigators tried to determine whether there were any links between the two shootings, residents of the crime-ridden barrio neighborhoods where the parties took place decried the continuing gang violence.

“It’s not an uncommon thing to hear that another young person has been shot or killed,” said Yolanda Gaodamez, 43, Ochoa’s aunt. “It’s getting worse every day. It is senseless.”

Mayor Daniel H. Young repeated his concern Sunday over continuing gang violence in Santa Ana, and called on parents to try to help steer their children away from gangs.

“We have to let them know (that) the consequences of allowing their son or daughter to be involved in a gang is to be killed,” Young said.

The mayor added that he was not surprised to hear of one gang-related shooting in Santa Ana following another so closely.

“When the shooting starts, it sets off a chain reaction,” Young said. “Our experience is that one shooting leads to a number of shootings because it’s gangs retaliating against one another.”

The motive for the Sunday morning attack remained under investigation Sunday. Eldridge said detectives were looking at all possibilities, including any connection to Friday’s attack.

“There’s no rhyme or reason to these shootings,” said Mike Alvarado, a detective at the scene of Sunday’s attack. “Anybody can drive through here and start shooting.”

Witnesses said the shots were fired from a blue van containing several people. Police recovered an abandoned vehicle matching the description of the van but have not identified any suspects, Eldridge said.

Officers Saturday had arrested three suspected gang members in connection with Friday’s shooting. In a separate gang-related incident early Saturday in Anaheim, police were still looking Sunday for suspects in a knifing attack on three young men.

One of the wounded men in that incident was airlifted to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, and the others were taken to the UCI Medical Center, a fire department spokeswoman said. Police have declined to give names of the victims or update their conditions. Police said the men were stabbed when a gang-related fight broke out between separate groups of young men at a party.

The Sunday shooting took place in a neighborhood known by police and residents as territory controlled by the Lopers street gang. Friday’s shooting occurred in what Gaodamez and other residents described as Eastside gang territory.

The Lopers have had running feuds with the Eastside gang, as well as other Santa Ana gangs, said Jose Munoz, 26, a longtime resident of East Walnut Street in the Lopers’ neighborhood. The Sunday birthday party was held behind an apartment complex by members of the Lopers, Munoz said. Several Lopers interviewed said they had no idea who was behind the Sunday attack.

“Every time we have a party, we get shot at,” said one professed Lopers member who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We don’t ever start fights. We just kick back, and they come and shoot us. We don’t even have guns. We’d rather settle things with our fists.”

The gang member, along with two other professed Lopers who also did not want to be named, identified Torres as a longtime Lopers member whose gang name is “Shorty.” Salgado, whose street name is “Night Owl,” was a member of the nearby Middleside gang and was invited to the party along with a group of other Middleside gang members, the three Lopers said.

Salgado and Torres had stepped away from the party for a walk when the shooting started. Neighbors reported hearing from five to 10 shots, possibly from two pistols. Angel Barrios, 13, who also attended the party, said the van was driving west on East Walnut Street when the shots rang out.

The people in the van “didn’t say nothing,” Barrios said. “They just drove away.”