4 Youths Held in Clubbing; Others Sought in Crime Spree : Violence: One man was fatally beaten and there were five other attacks in less than three hours. The robbery victims were all Latinos.

Four teen-age boys are in custody in connection with the billy-club beating of a man Friday night, and a carload of companions may be responsible for five similar attacks, one of them fatal, police said Monday.

“It appears to us that there were four or more juveniles or adults who went on a crime spree and attacked numerous people in the county with heavy objects or clubs . . . ,” said Orange Police Sgt. Larry Pore. “We can only make the assumption that the crime spree continued into Santa Ana and Tustin.”

A 15-year-old from Orange, a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old from Santa Ana, and a 16-year-old from Anaheim were arrested in Orange early Saturday on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. They remained at Orange County Juvenile Hall pending further investigation, police said Monday.

The street attacks began shortly before midnight Friday in Orange and ended 4 1/2 miles away and less than three hours later in Tustin with the fatal beating of a Carl’s Jr. worker outside his apartment complex and the attack of a man riding his bicycle in Santa Ana.

Tustin police believe that the assaults are linked because the victims were all Latino men. At least three of them were wearing fast-food or restaurant uniforms, police said. Investigators have theorized that the victims may have been targeted because the attackers assumed that they had just gotten off work and could have just cashed their paychecks.

“We’ve contacted several of the local food chains and advised them of the fact that someone had been accosted and killed in what appeared to be a robbery attempt,” Tustin Police Sgt. Mike Shanahan said. “And for at least several days, employees should be extra cautious, particularly if they are going home (after work) on foot or alone.”

The attacks apparently began at about 11:45 p.m. Friday when Alfredo Ernesto Rojas, 24, of Santa Ana was walking with a friend in the 200 block of East 17th Street, a few blocks from Main Street, in Santa Ana.

Three men in a red, two-door Chevrolet drove up, and one man got out, struck Rojas on the head with a bat and stole his money, the victim told police.

The second attack occurred 10 minutes later, near the intersection of Tustin and Collins avenues in Orange, as a pair of young men were walking down the street near a service station. They told police that they were cornered in a parking lot by two cars, a brown 1976 Toyota Corolla and a black vehicle.

Four teen-agers sprang out of the Toyota and chased the men, one of whom escaped. The other was struck several times by large clubs, possibly baseball bats or billy clubs.

The quartet hopped into the Toyota and drove away. The occupants of the black car, who never got out, left the scene at some point, Pore said. The victim, whose name was not available, summoned police.

A short time later, patrol officers with a description of the Toyota stopped one in a nearby residential neighborhood and detained four teen-agers. Pore said the victim in the second attack identified them as his assailants, and the youths were arrested.

Meanwhile, five blocks away, a third attack occurred less than 45 minutes after the first one.

A 29-year-old man riding a bicycle from a Marie Callender’s Restaurant at 380 N. Tustin Ave. in Orange was struck with a baseball bat, kicked, beaten and robbed of about $200, police said. He could not specify the number of attackers, and it was unclear if he worked at the restaurant, police said.

A woman driving by witnessed the attack, Pore said, but because she was alone she was afraid to stop. When she drove by again the victim was gone, but the bike remained. The victim walked to his Santa Ana home and, some time later, reported the attack to Santa Ana police.

Shortly after midnight and sometime after the first beating, a man walking outside a commercial strip at 1100 W. Chapman Ave., was confronted by two assailants in a dark car who beat him, then stole his wallet, Pore said.

The victim looked at the four arrested teen-agers but told police that none was among those who attacked him, according to Pore.

“So now there appears to be a second carload of people committing crimes, but they appear to be connected with the first carload,” Pore said.

At about 1:20 a.m. Saturday, Froylan Velasquez, 26, was found severely beaten near the gate of his Tustin apartment complex and died later that morning. Police said they have found no witnesses to that attack.

Shanahan of the Tustin Police Department said that Velasquez had not cashed his paycheck and that the attackers were not believed to have gotten more than loose change from his pockets. “That may have been why he was beaten so bad,” Shanahan said.

Velasquez usually walked home from work with his wife, who is employed at a Japanese restaurant across the street from Carl’s Jr. But she had left work earlier than usual.

The sixth attacked occurred at about 1:30 a.m. Saturday as Rene Jimenez, 24, of Santa Ana was riding his bicycle in the 800 block of North Bristol Street in Santa Ana. Two men wielding baseball bats pulled him off the bicycle and beat him, he told police.

Some of the victims will be shown photographs of the four suspects, police said. Tustin investigators have interviewed the arrested foursome but details were not available.