Police Seek Witness, Car at Murder Scene : Crime: Investigators suspect a Mercedes seen on day before Santa Ana triple slaying is linked to the killer. A bystander who saw the shootings has disappeared.

Police were searching Wednesday for a Mercedes-Benz that was spotted at a crime-plagued apartment complex a day before three young men were murdered and a fourth seriously wounded.

Police sources said Wednesday that the driver is believed to be either the killer or a key witness to the shootings. Investigators speculate that the driver, or an accomplice, may have taken part in a botched drug deal at the Fairview Villas and come back Monday to take revenge.

Sources within the Police Department said investigators have a good description of the car--they would describe it only as being a late-model Mercedes--and are trying to track down its owner through state Department of Motor Vehicle records. However, investigators would not say whether they had a complete license tag number or reveal much more about the car itself or the gunman.

Police Lt. Robert Helton said the investigation has been hampered by the disappearance of a Latino man who is believed to have seen a gunman shoot Mario David Mora, 23, and Noel Herrera Arroyo, 20, as they stood near a set of public telephones in the complex. Both fell to the ground and died immediately.

The third slaying victim, Angel Brito-Guadarrama, 16, turned to run but the gunman shot him three times in the chest with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic weapon, police and relatives said.

Helton said investigators do not know whether the three people who were killed were innocent bystanders or were tracked down by the killer. Police said that there were other people near the pay phones at the time of the shooting and that no drugs were found on any of the victims.

The Latino witness, whose description was being withheld, was standing near the phones and escaped unhurt--but then vanished, Helton said.

‘We’re trying to shake up any sort of lead on this, but we have nothing so far,” Helton said Wednesday.

Another potential key witness to the crime is a Fairview Villas resident, Miguel Angel Toledo Soto, 22, who was shot when the car he was riding in drove past the complex as the gunman was fleeing. Soto, who suffered a head wound, was in serious but stable condition Wednesday in the intensive care unit of UCI Medical Center in Orange, a spokeswoman said.

Soto was alert and his condition had improved Wednesday, the spokeswoman said. Helton said police had questioned him Monday night and planned to do so again.

Also Wednesday, the owner of the massive $22.7-million complex, Allen L. Boerner, said he has asked to meet later this week with Mayor Daniel H. Young and Police Chief Paul Walters to discuss ways to oust the drug dealers who continue to do business at the Fairview Villas.

“We are by no means slumlords,” said Boerner, who bought the complex five years ago. “The concerns of these residents have not fallen on deaf ears.”

On the day after the shooting, a frustrated Mayor Young said he would like to see the maze-like complex torn down. Boerner said such a move would solve nothing except to leave the residents of the complex, many of whom are impoverished, without affordable housing.

Boerner said his company, Cabio Properties Inc. of Fullerton, has invested nearly $500,000 in the past year to install gates, fences and walls around the complex and hire three security guards whose job it is to keep drug dealers out of the 562-unit complex.

Management has distributed bilingual flyers offering a $25 reward for information leading to the arrest of drug dealers and, Boerner said, even distributed free safety whistles.

“I’m very saddened for those who were killed and their families,” Boerner said. “We have worked with the city and have been very cooperative with the police.”

Aides to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), whose district includes the complex, said Dornan is planning to tour Fairview Villas, probably next week, to see what might be done.

“I don’t know that it is a federal matter but it is certainly is a tragedy . . . ,” said Dornan spokesman Paul Morrell. “He wants people to know he’s concerned.”

Meanwhile, two City Council members Wednesday were critical of the Santa Ana Police Department’s drug-fighting record.

“We are losing the war on drugs and these dealers in Santa Ana,” said Councilman John Acosta, who called for the hiring of more police officers.

Councilman Richards L. Norton complained that Walters has not done enough to prevent the escalation of the drug trade.

“We got to be doing something here. We start off with a single homicide. We move up to a drive-by shooting, and now we have a triple homicide,” Norton said. He said Walters should have asked for permission to hire more officers for his 351-member police force.

“The chief of police should come before the council and demand more manpower to get the job done. He has not done that,” Norton said.

“I think that’s just a whole lot of baloney,” responded Young, who said Walters has done an excellent job. “You can’t blame the police chief when a person on drugs pulls out a gun and shoots people.”

“The council believes in him,” Young added.

The Police Department has a $40-million budget this fiscal year, enough to hire 15 additional employees, city budgets show. The police budget represents about 40% of the city’s general fund.

Meanwhile, another major Orange County landlord who has tangled with drug dealers said they can be rousted by aggressive but legal tactics--if management is prepared to be diligent.

Ray Maggi, whose Cypress-based MPMS Inc. manages 16 buildings across Orange County, said managers can move pay phones inside a manned office to discourage drug dealers from using them; check police blotters, which are public records, to find out whether police have been frequently summoned to a troublesome apartment; or notice which tenants tend to pay their rent with small, crumpled bills indicative of low-level drug dealing.

Two years ago, Maggi said, a sharp-eyed manager in his Viking Apartments in Fullerton noticed smoke coming from an apartment at night and agreed to cooperate with police. Eventually, police raided the apartment and found the tenants were running a methamphetamine laboratory, complete with toxic chemicals.

“We had to decontaminate the carpet,” Maggi said. A vice president of the Apartment Assn. of Orange County, Maggi said the Fullerton operation cost him $3,500 in damages and lost rent while his jailed tenants were being evicted but was worth the effort.

In an especially daring ploy, Maggi said, one manager informed tenants that he intended to photograph everyone who entered and left the building and then stood at the entrance with a camera. The technique has an amazing effect on prostitutes and drug dealers, who tend to move out of their own accord--and fast, he said.

“You have seven, eight men coming in, one every hour, and boy, you start taking pictures and bam! They’re gone,” Maggi said. “But in today’s environment, I’d almost want a police officer standing next to you.”