WESTMINSTER : Drive-By Shootings Raise Police Alarm

Police on Sunday said they are alarmed by three apparently unrelated drive-by shootings over the weekend in the city, which could indicate an increase in gang activity.

No one was injured in the three incidents, which occurred Friday night, Saturday night and early Sunday morning, but two vehicles were damaged by gunfire, police said. Two men were arrested.

Police Sgt. Tom Broderson said the three incidents occurred near what are thought to be gang territories.

The two men who were arrested remain in Orange County Jail on $10,000 bail each in connection with a 10:40 p.m. Friday incident in which four suspects in a vehicle shot at a passing car on Janice Street.

Jose Coronado Mesa, 20, of Santa Ana and Pablo Aguilar Rivera, 18, of Garden Grove were arrested on suspicion of shooting at an inhabited vehicle and assault with a deadly weapon.

In the second incident, which occurred shortly before 11 p.m. Saturday, a man narrowly escaped injury when four shots were fired into the windshield of his pickup truck as he took cover under the dashboard.

Broderson said that shooting took place after three people in a car drove up to a large group standing in front of a home on Homer Street and asked where they were from.

When no one answered, one of the three pulled a gun from under the hood of the car, firing it at the driver of a pickup truck.

Sunday’s incident occurred at 3:40 a.m. on Starsia Street when a group of people in a car drove by a home with a few people in the front yard, firing several shots at a car parked in front of the house.