SANTA ANA : Police Arrest Gang Member in Murder

Police on Friday arrested a 17-year-old gang member in connection with the May 12 drive-by shooting death of Jesus Gutierrez, who was the 17th gang-related murder victim in Orange County this year.

The male suspect, whose name is being withheld because of his age, was arrested early Friday at his Santa Ana home without incident, said Maureen Thomas, Santa Ana Police Department spokeswoman. He is being held in Juvenile Hall.

“He is a gang member,” Thomas said of the suspect. Police believe Gutierrez, a 21-year-old Garden Grove construction worker who used the nicknames “Jessie” and “J,” had belonged to a gang that was at odds with the gang the suspect belongs to.

Gutierrez, known as a tough street boxer who liked to use his fists as weapons, was gunned down as he and nine companions stood in the 4700 block of West Henderson Place outside the home of Juan Manuel Alcantar. Alcantar, 24, was wounded in the incident.

Thomas said the 17-year-old murder suspect allegedly fired three or four shots from a handgun as he sat in the passenger seat of a car that approached Alcantar’s home about 1:30 a.m. May 12. As the car slowed down, Gutierrez asked the identity of its occupants and was shot once in the chest and once in the arm just before the vehicle sped away, she said.

He was dead on arrival at a Garden Grove hospital.

No weapons were recovered Friday during a search of the suspect’s home, Thomas said.

The driver and other passengers in the car with the suspect have not been arrested or identified, Thomas said.

The number of gang-related killings this year in Orange County has already surpassed last year’s total of 16, authorities said.