Gang Member, 14, Found Dead on Sidewalk

A 14-year-old gang member was found shot to death on a sidewalk on South Spruce Street early Wednesday morning, police said.

Jason Garcia, a student at Horizon Continuation School in Santa Ana, was shot once in the lower back with what apparently was a small-caliber weapon sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday, authorities said.

A resident found his body about 5:30 a.m. and notified police. When police arrived, Garcia was already dead, wearing a black Los Angeles Raiders jacket and lying next to a bicycle, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

Coroner’s deputies told police that Garcia had been dead for “several hours,” although they could not be more specific without an autopsy, Helton said.

Residents said they heard gunshots in the area around midnight.

“We heard five shots about 12:30 a.m.,” said Felix Santamaria, who found police in front of his house Wednesday morning examining the crime scene. “But we didn’t know exactly where. . . . It’s normal to hear shots like that around here.”

The boy lived about half a mile away with his father, Dolores Garcia, who said he last saw his son Tuesday about 9 p.m.

“I gave him a ride to a friend’s house about 9 p.m. last night,” Garcia said. “I told him to be back by 10.”

But when Garcia came home from his night shift job about 6 a.m. Wednesday, his son had not returned. “I wondered where he was,” Garcia said.

The teen-ager wore the tattoos of a local gang, Garcia said, adding that he wouldn’t be surprised if the shooting turns out to be gang-related.

“I’m trying to call over there (where he dropped his son off) to find out why he wanted to go over there right away,” Garcia said.

Garcia said he did not know whose bicycle was found next to his son; his son didn’t own a bicycle, as far as he knew.

Investigators have not determined if the shooting was gang-related, but they have not ruled out that possibility, Helton said.

“We’re treating it as a homicide without a motive,” Helton said. “There are all kinds of possibilities at this point.”