Party-Goer Had No Time to Duck as Gunfire Stopped the Celebration

It happened so quickly, Ramon Gallegos Lopez doesn’t even remember whether he was dancing or not.

But what he does recall all too clearly is the searing pain that shot up his arm when he tried to duck a volley of bullets fired early Sunday morning inside the popular Plaza Azul Restaurant.

“Behind me, someone pushed a guy and then suddenly, I heard the first shot,” said Lopez, 23, from his hospital bed at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana. “That’s the one that got me.”

Lopez and his roommate, Joel Calderon Martinez, 34, each suffered a wound to an arm as the gunfire erupted about 12:30 a.m. during a quinceanera, or coming-out party, for a 15-year-old Los Angeles girl. The celebration signifies a girl’s passage into womanhood.

Killed in the shooting was Thomas Rojo Villa, 41, a homeless man gunned down while trying to flee into the crowded restaurant. The gunman, who was still at large Monday, is believed to have been a guest at the quinceanera, said Maureen Haacker, a Santa Ana police spokeswoman.

“We are actively looking for the suspect,” Haacker said. “We hope he is still in the area.”

Witnesses said that early in the evening, Villa had chatted with guests who wandered outside the Plaza Azul at 1320 N. Grand Ave. to get some fresh air.

“He was laughing with all the people and when anyone would ask him how he was doing, he would say, ‘Fine, fine.’ There didn’t seem to be any problems,” Lopez said.

Later, when the party was about to break up, Villa got into an argument outside the restaurant with one guest who eventually pulled out a handgun, police said. It was unclear what sparked the confrontation.

Villa then bolted into the restaurant, but could not escape the gunman, who was firing as Villa ran, Haacker said.

Back inside, Martinez and Lopez were among 25 to 30 guests, most of whom were unaware that a fight was in progress. Lopez, who said he had attended the quinceanera to have a few beers and dance, recalled that he froze when the shots rang out.

For a split second, Lopez said, he did not know he had been hit.

“I felt cold air like (his arm) blew off and then it felt hot,” Lopez said. At first, “I thought it was sweat, and I looked and it was blood. My arm was hanging. It felt like I did not have an arm.”

Lopez said he panicked and tried to find Martinez, his roommate, but could not locate him in the crowd. Lopez learned later that Martinez, with whom he has lived in Anaheim for three months, had also been shot in the arm.

Lopez and Villa were taken Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where Villa was pronounced dead. Martinez was taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim.

“The gunfire was intended for the victim and the other people were just caught in the middle,” Haacker said. She added that by the time police arrived at the Plaza Azul, the assailant had fled.

Martinez said that he had a slight acquaintance with Jose and Alfonsina Maldonado, who hosted the quinceanera. The police declined to say whether the Maldonados were related to the girl for whom the celebration was held.

“I didn’t even notice anything until we heard the shots,” Martinez said from his hospital bed. “If we had not gone, maybe this would not have happened.”