Gang in Killing ‘Just Looking for Trouble’ : Violence: San Juan youths weren’t looking specifically for the man who was gunned down at a restaurant but for anyone from San Clemente, police say.

Police said Monday that members of a San Juan Capistrano gang apparently did not go looking for Ramon C. Calvillo before they shot him once fatally in the abdomen early Sunday after a brawl that spilled out into the parking lot of a Chinese restaurant.

The youths, members of the San Juan Boys gang, were probably just spoiling for a fight with anybody from San Clemente--gang member or not, said San Clemente Police Detective Cmdr. Richard Downing.

At about 1:30 a.m. in The Great Wall restaurant, as a popular band played Latin tunes, feuding youths from the two cities exchanged insults, then began pelting each other with beer bottles, police and relatives said Monday.

Some of the combatants ran into the parking lot where the gunman, believed to be a member of the San Juan Boys, shouted “Puro San Juan!” (San Juan rules) and shot Calvillo, Downing said.

“I don’t think when they went there they were looking for Calvillo,” Downing said. “I think they were just looking for trouble.”

Nor do police think the San Juan gang was gunning for Calvillo last Christmas Eve when they fired on his brother’s San Clemente home. Calvillo had separated from his wife and was living with his brother on Avenida Pelayo when shots were fired from a passing car, said the brother, Manuel Calvillo, 28.

The bullets gravely wounded a 4-year-old neighbor, Prisca Lorena Caudillo, who lived behind the Calvillos and was playing on the balcony. The little girl survived, and an alleged member of the San Juan Capistrano gang later pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon.

“We haven’t found any connection between the two (incidents),” Downing said. “It’s just that they all know each other, know where each other live, and they go cruising until they find someone.”

Police say the 26-year-old Calvillo was a member of San Clemente’s Varrio Chico gang. Manuel Calvillo said his brother, who had had several minor scrapes with the law, was dressed as a gang member on the night of the shooting but had cooled his gang activities.

“My brother was a good guy,” Manuel Calvillo said. “He didn’t want trouble any more. If he wanted trouble, all he would have to do is go to San Juan, but he didn’t go over there, never.”

However, Calvillo agreed with police and community leaders that animosity has turned to dangerous combat in South County cities where gangs were unknown until recently.

“Violence is going up around here every day,” Manuel Calvillo said. “We should have programs like they have in L.A., to talk to the little kids now, before they get into gangs.”

No battle scars were visible Monday at the Great Wall restaurant, located on the outskirts of a shopping center in an industrial area near Interstate 5.

But Manuel Calvillo said the restaurant has been the scene of frequent fights since it began attracting big crowds with its Saturday night bands.

“There were fights all the time, inside and outside,” he said, adding that the restaurant has no security guard. Calvillo faulted the management for not calling the police either during the bottle-throwing brawl inside the restaurant or when his brother was shot outside.

The restaurant manager, Kenny Wong, said there have been several minor incidents but nothing major enough to warrant calling the police. And he said he did not call the police on Saturday night because he stayed inside the restaurant and was not aware that a shooting had taken place outside.

“I saw people running to the door and I told them to stay inside,” Wong said Monday. “They were only throwing bottles. I saw no blood and no injuries inside so it didn’t seem like it was anything.”

Manuel Calvillo claims that his brother was struck in the head by a bottle thrown by the club’s disc jockey. Detective Downing had not heard that account, but said Ramon Calvillo did have a cut on his head.

“People were throwing bottles--a lot of bottles--and they were breaking,” Downing said. “So we figure a piece of flying glass cut him in the head.”

San Clemente City Council member Scott Diehl also questioned why the restaurant had not called police to break up the brawl before it became lethal.

“We need to have some cooperation from these businesses that have been catering to the gangs,” Diehl said.

Wong said he planned to cancel the Saturday night Latin music at the restaurant to prevent future conflicts.

Meanwhile, city and county officials differed over how to squelch the gang problem before it becomes more entrenched in South County cities.

Colleen E. Hodges, supervising probation officer of the Orange County gang violence suppression unit, said Laguna Niguel, Dana Point and San Juan Capistrano have all agreed to join her department in an anti-gang program, but San Clemente has declined.

Under the program, which is to begin in a month, probation officers will pair up on patrols with sheriff’s deputies to arrest known gang members who are found to be violating the terms of their probation by continuing to associate with their gangs.

San Clemente “made the decision to put its money into diversion programs,” Hodges said. “While that addresses future problems, it does little about existing gang members.”

San Clemente City Manager Michael W. Parness said the city has decided it would do better to focus on gang education and prevention. Parness said the city has contracted with a private firm, Community Services Program, to provide gang education, and has set up a gang detail in the Police Department.

San Clemente Mayor Candace Haggard said residents must understand that controlling the gang problem will take time.

“This is not something that is going to be solved overnight,” she said. “Just because the police have started a gang-suppression unit doesn’t mean that the gang members are going to get up and leave.”

Terry Spencer contributed to this story.