4 Arrested in Gang Shoot-Out That Left 1 Dead

In a series of morning raids Wednesday, police arrested three teen-agers and a 20-year-old man in connection with the death of a fellow gang member killed in a fierce shoot-out between rival gangs three weeks ago.

Police arrested Javier B. Romero, 20, and three unidentified youths, ages 17, 16 and 14, at their Santa Ana homes for their alleged roles in a Jan. 24 shoot-out at Alona Park that sent bystanders scrambling for cover and left one gang member dead and two others wounded. A fourth suspect, Hugo A. Chavez, 20, was not home when police raided his residence and is being sought.

Police said the suspects were gang associates of the slain victim, 17-year-old Robert Vasquez. None is charged with firing the shot that killed Vasquez, but police said they will be charged with conspiracy to aid and abet in the commission of a homicide because they participated in the bloody gun battle at the quiet neighborhood park.

“These guys didn’t shoot their own,” Police Sgt. Robert Helton said. “But they went into the park knowing that there was going to be violence, and they participated in it.”

Helton said Romero and Chavez, who were both wounded in the shoot-out, were not arrested immediately afterward because police did not have enough evidence to charge them with a crime. Romero is being held at Orange County jail. The three teen-agers, who were not identified because of their ages, were taken to Juvenile Hall in Orange.

Santa Ana gang investigators launched Wednesday’s raids at the Highland Street home of the 17-year-old suspect. Shortly after 7 a.m., about a dozen police officers, including a SWAT team and a canine unit, surrounded the house while more than 20 reporters invited to the raid by police gathered several yards away.

The youth, dressed in a white T-shirt and blue sweat pants, surrendered without incident. Several of the teen-ager’s relatives, including a toddler, were home at the time and were detained. They were released shortly after the raid.

The police later searched his family’s home for weapons and found several rifles that were owned by the boy’s father.

Those weapons were not seized, but police confiscated a .380-caliber semiautomatic handgun at Chavez’s home on South Nottingham Avenue. Investigators were attempting to determine if the gun was used in the shoot-out.

Police said they encountered no resistance in the other arrests, which were made on Highland Street, Richland Avenue and West 2nd Street. No other weapons were confiscated.

Gang investigators said the morning raids on the gang members’ homes are part of their increased effort to rid Highland Street of its most prominent gang. For years, the neighborhood has been dominated by gang members who have spray-painted their insignia on walls, telephone poles and the sidewalks throughout the area.

“These arrests will send a ripple through the whole neighborhood,” said gang investigator Rick Reese. “We’re going to drive a wedge through the gang and break the members up.”

On Jan. 24, members of two rival gangs from the neighborhood terrified dozens of bystanders in Alona Park with a running fight that began on a baseball diamond and extended to the River View Golf Course, near the Santa Ana River bike trail. The wild gun battle, which one eyewitness described as an “OK Corral” shoot-out, sent golfers and park visitors running for cover.

The battle had been prearranged by two rival members, said Sgt. Robert Sayne, head of the department’s gang detail. The two had a “petty” argument while attending classes at Horizon High School, which is near the park, he said.

“It was a matter of these guys saying to each other, ‘Come on, let’s go have a shoot-out,’ ” Sayne said. “They had no regard for each other or for the public.”

A day after the shooting, police arrested three members of the rival gang. Dennis W. Durbin, 18, of Santa Ana and two 15-year-olds have been charged with murder and attempted murder.

Since the beginning of the year, Santa Ana has had a string of drive-by shootings, including one this week in which a police officer was slightly injured when a driver opened fire on his patrol car.