Placentia, Orange Police Probe Shooting Death : Crime: Drive-by incident on New Year’s Day capped a night of violence in which seven other people were injured.

Police in Placentia and Orange joined forces Wednesday to identify the assailants in a fatal New Year’s Day drive-by shooting that capped a night of violence during which seven other people were wounded.

But police conceded that they had few leads in the early Tuesday morning shooting death of Jack Cisneros, 33, a landscape maintenance worker who was felled by a single shotgun blast to his chest as he stood on a sidewalk near his Tafolla Street home.

Meanwhile, Cisneros’ wife, Vicki Jo, who had given birth to the couple’s twin sons two days before the slaying, was kept in seclusion at her parents’ Brea home, under sedation, family members said.

Cisneros also left two sons--a 13-year-old and an 8-year-old--and a 3-year-old daughter.

As Cisneros’ parents spent the day making funeral arrangements for Monday morning at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, family and friends met at the small house, which he shared with his parents.

They could not believe that Cisneros, who was not a member of the local gang, La Jolla Locotes (La Jolla crazies), had been killed.

“I’m still dazed,” said Ricky Cisneros, Jack Cisneros’ brother, standing outside the family home. “I’m not used to seeing a family member die. You read about it, but you never think it’s going to happen.”

Other residents who gathered on the narrow streets near Cisneros’ home lamented that the 2:50 a.m. shooting was all too common an occurrence in the small neighborhood, one of the city’s oldest.

One young, self-described La Jolla gang member who declined to be named said the shootings are too frequent to count.

He called Cisneros’ death a casualty. “You take it in stride,” he said. “But he was a good guy. He just got in the way.”

Although detectives have been unable to identify any suspects, they theorize that Cisneros’ killer was a member of an Orange gang that was seeking retribution for an earlier melee that broke out at a party two blocks from where Cisneros was shot.

“This is not the kind of distinction we want, having to be the city where the first homicide of the year took place,” said Placentia Police Chief Manuel Ortega, who was facing his first major incident since taking over the city’s top law enforcement spot in October.

Ortega said all of the Police Department’s investigators were on the case, hoping to make an arrest soon. Since it is believed that the assailant belonged to Orange Varrio Cypress--so-called because members of that gang live on or near Cypress Street in Orange--detectives from that city were called in to help in the homicide investigation.

But they had little to work on.

“The only thing we have is a vague description of the car” used in the shooting, Placentia Police Sgt. Russ Rice said. The car was described only as a dark, imported compact sedan.

Police also agreed that shooting is not out of the ordinary in the La Jolla Street neighborhood, one of three trouble spots in the city.

About two hours before Cisneros’ slaying, police were called to quell a large disturbance involving more than 100 New Year’s revelers on Nebraska Street, during which six people were stabbed, Rice said. None of the wounds were life-threatening.

Twenty minutes later on the same street, an Orange juvenile was shot in the leg. Police were still at the scene investigating when Cisneros was shot to death.

Other city officials expressed concern that the night of violence occurred despite a new series of anti-gang measures that were launched since Ortega took office.

“I’m kind of shocked,” Placentia Councilman John O. Tynes said. “I thought everything had kind of settled down. Things had been rather quiet, so I didn’t expect this.”

Ortega said that he will hold a series of neighborhood meetings beginning later this month in an effort to stem gang-related problems that police say have plagued the area for more than a decade.