Slaying Ends Beach Dispute in Dana Point

An argument between two South County teen-agers on a sunny, crowded beach ended Saturday with one of them shot to death and the other in custody, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department said.

The shooting took place about 1 p.m. in an area known as Dana Strand, at the southern tip of Salt Creek Beach Park, a county-run beach just north of the Dana Point Headlands.

According to Sheriff’s Lt. William Francis, deputies responded to reports of a shooting on the beach, where they found bystanders giving first aid to an 18-year-old Dana Point man with a chest wound. Paramedics took the victim to a nearby hospital, where he was reported dead on arrival.

His identity was being withheld Saturday night until relatives could be notified.

Sheriff’s spokesman Francis said shootings on Orange County beaches are “very uncommon.” Police and lifeguard officials up and down the county coast said Saturday that not a single beach shooting had been reported this year.

Witnesses to the shooting gave deputies a description of the suspect, a 16-year-old from Laguna Niguel, and the vehicle he was driving. The youth, whose name is being withheld because he is a juvenile, was arrested without incident a short time later at Interstate 5 and Ortega Highway in San Juan Capistrano, Francis said.

The suspect was being questioned Saturday night by sheriff’s deputies in Santa Ana, Francis said.

Witnesses agreed that the two had been involved in a running dispute that began before Saturday, involving a pickup truck window that had been broken.

The victim, according to a witness who asked not to be identified, was walking down a bluff toward the area in the sand where the suspect and a group of friends were sitting. The suspect saw the victim walking toward him and pulled a small-caliber, short-barreled pistol.

“I looked up, and he had this gun,” said Andy Manning of Monrovia in Los Angeles County, who frequents the beach.

The suspect shouted, according to another witness, “Leave the beach or I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you if you come after me! I don’t want to kill you, just leave!”

The witness said the victim replied, “Just pay me for the window!”

“They were both shaking,” added a third witness, an 18-year-old man from Dana Point who also spoke on condition of anonymity.

The two continued their shouting match as they headed north along the strand, the victim pursuing the youth with the gun.

Manning said the victim said several times: “You’re not going to shoot me! You’re not going to get away this time! I’m going to get you!”

The suspect turned and pulled the trigger--hitting on an empty chamber, Manning said.

The youth ran again, then turned, went to his knees and fired again, Manning said. This time the pistol fired and hit the victim in the chest.

After the shooting, witnesses said, the suspect ran north along the beach, to a beach path. Paul R. Jacobson of Glendale said he saw the young man calmly walking up the beach path, with the pistol in his hand, pointed at the ground.

Manning said he saw police retrieve a pistol from the bushes near the top of the beach path.

State parks officials who patrol San Clemente, San Onofre, Doheny, Huntington Beach and Bolsa Chica beaches said no shootings have been reported at any of those beaches this year; police and lifeguards at Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach made a similar report.

However, a man was shot to death last month in the parking lot of Huntington State Beach.

Times Staff Writer Wendy Paulson contributed to this report