Santa Ana Student Shot by Cyclist Dies : Crime: Officers believe the brazen slaying was gang-related, but they have few leads.

A Santa Ana High School senior who was gunned down during a brazen after-school shooting by a bicycle-riding youth died early Friday morning, prompting police to step up their search for the gunman.

Jose G. Lepe, 17, who was shot once in the head Thursday afternoon, was pronounced dead at 1:30 a.m. by physicians at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he had spent the evening on life-support systems, Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

Investigators believe that the 2:50 p.m. attack was gang-related but did not know why Lepe was targeted, Helton said.

At the victim’s Santa Ana Boulevard home Friday morning, his parents were comforted by family members who struggled to come to grips with the tragedy. His mother wept in a corner of the small living room while his father talked about his eldest son.

“He’s a good boy,” said his father, Gabriel Lepe, 39, his eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. “I don’t know why they wanted to shoot him.”

Police investigators were searching for a motive, Helton said, but so far, they have found few cooperative witnesses and no suspects or solid leads. Three witnesses have been interviewed, but they revealed nothing substantial.

“We don’t have much of anything,” Helton said. “All information is very sketchy at this time.”

Helton said Lepe was on his way home from school Thursday afternoon in the 1000 block of West Walnut Street when another teen-ager rode by on a blue bicycle and opened fire with a pistol.

Lepe fell to the sidewalk and nearby residents called police.

“He was doing nothing more than walking down the street,” Helton said.

The gunman was last seen pedaling away. Investigators are trying to determine if the assailant is a student at nearby Santa Ana High School.

The shooting by a bicyclist was the first such attack in recent memory in this gang-plagued city.

“This was the first I can remember,” Helton said. He added that the victim had been affiliated with a local street gang but did not know to what extent.

Gabriel Lepe, however, said that his son, who was born in a small Mexican village near Guadalajara, preferred to stay home and help out with chores rather than hang out on the streets.

While his parents both worked long hours to support the household, Jose often cooked dinner for his five younger siblings. “He really had a love for the family,” the father said.

The elder Lepe said his son once told him that when he graduated from high school, he planned to become a police officer because “there is too much violence on the street. But I told him the police had too many problems. It’s too dangerous.”

Meanwhile, at the high school, school officials expressed their shock and described Lepe as a quiet boy who did not necessarily stand out among his peers but worked hard on his studies.

“It’s so unfortunate when a random incident like this happens to one of our students,” Santa Ana Unified School District spokeswoman Diane Thomas said. “(But) how can we control that? We wish we could, but the best we can do is continue to work as hard as we have” to make the campus more secure.

In September, for instance, District Supt. Rudy M. Castruita met with City Manager David M. Ream and City Council members, securing permission to close off a one-block section of Ross Street after a teacher was fired at. No one was injured in that attack.

Five district psychiatrists were sent to Santa Ana High on Friday to counsel both teachers and students, shaken by the school’s first murder of the year. In addition, a memo was circulated among faculty members, detailing the crime.

Thomas said that despite the shooting, which occurred about two blocks from the campus, the school itself is considered safe for students and teachers.

“One of the places where we feel frustrated is that we believe we have very good security on campus,” Thomas said. “Our students will tell you they feel safe on campus. We try and keep our borders safe. That’s the best we can hope to do.”