Murder Caps Rising Gang Violence in South County

A night of taunting between rival gang members at a restaurant ended Sunday when a 26-year-old man was gunned down in the parking lot--the first homicide here in five years and the city’s first-ever gang slaying, police said.

Roman C. Calvillo, 26, was shot in the head and stomach at 1:30 a.m. outside the Great Wall, a Chinese restaurant and nightclub, Police Sgt. James Thomas said. Friends rushed Calvillo to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The slaying underscores a growing gang problem in affluent South County, where officials this year launched a gang prevention task force.

San Clemente Mayor Candace Haggard said Sunday: “This is totally unacceptable. The cities in South County have been trying to get a handle on the gang problem here. This is a terrible thing, and we must do everything in our power to drive gangs out.”

Calvillo, a member of a San Clemente gang, was apparently killed by a member of a San Juan Capistrano gang, Thomas said. The same gangs, which have been enemies for several years, were involved in the drive-by shooting last Christmas Eve in which a 4-year-old girl was shot in the face and upper body as she played on the porch of a neighbor’s apartment in San Clemente.

The rivalry between the two South County gangs has intensified recently because of their battle over territory, said Thomas, head of the Police Department’s gang investigation division.

Calvillo and about five friends had gone to the Great Wall, located in the Pico Plaza shopping center on Calle de Industrias, at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday to listen to a band, Police Sgt. Russ Moore said. Shortly after, a group of 10 men arrived and were seated nearby.

“The two groups promptly began to exchange rude remarks and gang gestures,” Moore said.

The exchanges continued throughout the night, he said. Then at 1:30 a.m., the taunts escalated and the two sides began flinging beer bottles, Moore said.

At least 50 customers were still in the restaurant, and several of them saw a member of the San Juan Capistrano group pull out a handgun and point it at Calvillo and his friends, police said.

Calvillo then ran out of the restaurant, police said. The gunman followed and shot Calvillo in the parking lot. Police said the killer and his companions fled in a dark-brown Chevrolet van.

The gunman was described as a slender, 20-year-old Latino, 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with slicked-back black hair. The van’s driver was described as a husky, 20-year-old Latino with a full beard.

“Throughout the night, the taunts kept going back and forth, and the last straw was this bottle fight,” Thomas said. “The bottle-throwing triggered something between the gunman and Calvillo. Something like this always starts off minor, and it ends up to be something major like homicide.”

Calvillo’s friends drove him to Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente but left before police got there. Police said Calvillo is survived by three brothers, all of San Clemente.

At the Great Wall on Sunday morning, there was little evidence of a brawl. A few cans and bottles of beer littered the bar. In an adjacent and dim dining area, tables were ready for the 11:30 lunch trade.

At the shopping center, which includes fast-food restaurants, a 24-hour market and a drugstore, workers had already heard of the shooting. Until now, the center had remained untouched by the increasing gang crime that had hit the West Escalones and West Canada sections of the city, shop owners said.

“I’m surprised,” said Eileen Ream, a shopper who has lived in San Clemente for 25 years. “We have such a nice city. It’s ridiculous. But I guess it can happen anywhere.”

Larry Allen, 36, of Dana Point said he remembers growing up in San Clemente when it was a “quiet retirement town: only the Marines, the retired people and a handful of us kids. There was never any violence. Robbery was nil.”

The shooting was the second major gang-related incident in the city this month. Last weekend, Antonio Ramires, 20, of San Juan Capistrano was stabbed several times in the back and legs after he argued with a man in a back alley, police said. Police arrested Lorenzo Hurtado, 20, for the assault. Thomas said that the incident was gang-related but that investigators have not determined whether Calvillo’s death was connected to it.

In the Christmas Eve incident, Floyd Avery, 19, a member of the San Juan Capistrano gang, and his friends made three attempts to shoot rival gang members. In their second attempt, 4-year-old Prisca Caudillo was wounded by gunfire but recovered. In September, Avery pleaded guilty in the case to assault with a deadly weapon after a jury failed to reach a verdict.

That incident marked a violent turn in South County’s gang problem. Area cities banded together in the Gang Awareness Prevention Task Force, which was launched after a string of gang-related crimes. “For two years, the use of firearms and knives was unheard of in South County,” said Police Sgt. Richard Downing, who is investigating the Calvillo murder. “Then with the Christmas Eve incident, more and more gang members are carrying weapons and using them.”

Residents in South County have also reported an increase in gang graffiti on bus benches and gated community walls. In Mission Viejo, a 24-hour hot line was established for residents to report “graffiti sightings.”