Latest Drive-By Attacks Leave 1 Man Dead, 1 Gravely Hurt : Violence: Santa Ana and Westminster shootings make four since Thursday. Meanwhile, gunman who mortally wounded an Anaheim man during traffic dispute Friday is still at large.

One man was shot to death and another critically wounded in Santa Ana and Westminster early Saturday, bringing to four the number of attacks that police have attributed to drive-by gunmen since Thursday.

Both victims were shot in the head while in moving cars. Killed was a 28-year-old man whose identity was being withheld by Santa Ana police. But still clinging to life was Alberto Quinones, 26, of Westminster.

Detectives have no suspects in either crime, but believe that the Santa Ana fatality may have been gang-related. In two other gang-related shootings on Thursday, four young men were wounded, perhaps by the same assailants.

Police spokesmen were at a loss to explain the spate of crimes, but pointed to the shootings as the latest indication that such violence is becoming more common in Orange County.

“Kind of makes you want to stare straight ahead when you’re driving,” Santa Ana Police Sgt. Roger Scharf said, noting also that a suspect remains at large in the fatal shooting Friday of an Anaheim teen-ager during a heated traffic dispute.

The Saturday shootings began to unfold about 1 a.m., when residents in the 7100 block of 21st Street in Westminster called police to report a traffic accident at the intersection of 21st and Pine streets. A car had suddenly gone out of control, slammed into a tree and rolled backward into the middle of the intersection, witnesses said.

One nearby resident, who asked that his name not be used, said he was walking into his kitchen when he heard a bang. Looking outside he saw the car slam into the tree. “It hit so hard it shook everything,” he said.

When police arrived, they found Quinones slumped over the steering wheel, bleeding and unconscious--not from the impact but from a bullet wound to his head, Westminster police said.

Quinones was treated at the scene by paramedics and taken to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was listed in critical condition in the hospital’s intensive care unit, a nursing supervisor said.

Westminster Police Sgt. Mark Groh said investigators are baffled over the shooting, citing a lack of witnesses and evidence at the scene. It was also unclear if the shooting was gang-related.

“We don’t have much,” Groh said. “We really don’t know what happened.”

Thirty minutes later, police in Santa Ana received a frantic call from Mary Moore, a West Wisteria Place resident who was sitting on her bed playing solitaire when she heard five gunshots, followed by screeching tires and a crash.

“I hear gunfire all the time,” she said later. “But this one was real close. I thought to myself, ‘Should I duck for cover or check it out?’ ”

Moore chose the latter. Still in her bathrobe, she ran outside and saw that a pickup truck had crashed into a vacant house next door. It had apparently veered off nearby Raitt Street and plowed through a high chain link fence before coming to a stop against the house.

The driver was sitting, seat-belted, inside the cab, his head bowed and bleeding. Moore said his breathing was shallow and he was groaning.

It was then she saw a gaping hole in the driver’s left temple, where a bullet was still lodged.

Moore screamed to neighbors.

“I yelled to them,” Moore said. “I said, ‘Somebody has got to help this guy! Will somebody please help this guy?’ ”

As she began to wrench open the car door, police and paramedics arrived. The 28-year-old man, whose identity was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, was airlifted to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

“It’s so sad,” Moore said, bemoaning the almost daily violence that she said grips her neighborhood. “I’d move, but it’s happening all over.”

Santa Ana Police Sgt. Scharf said that the driver of the truck had been heading south along Raitt Street when the shooting occurred. He said investigators believe it to be gang-related, but it was not immediately known if the victim was a gang member.

Police said they have no suspects, although Moore said she saw officers question three young men, take their pictures and handcuff one of them. The handcuffed suspect was eventually driven away in a squad car, she said.

Police on Saturday afternoon refused comment on her account.

Meanwhile, police in Huntington Beach spent the day fielding dozens of phone calls from people who claim to have seen someone who matched a description released of the gunman who fatally shot 19-year-old Steve Kiley Escalera in the head with a shotgun during the traffic dispute Friday morning.

Escalera, a plumber who lived with his family in the unincorporated Anaheim area, was in a pickup truck with his friend, Ralph Clark, when the two became embroiled in an argument with a man driving a 1976 or 1978 Pontiac Grand Prix.

The dispute began on Beach Boulevard at the Garden Grove Freeway and continued for about 5 miles, police said. Just before the two cars reached Heil Avenue, the Pontiac driver pulled out a pistol-grip shotgun and fired once, striking Escalera.

Huntington Beach Police Lt. John Foster said that detectives on Saturday were busy checking out numerous tips. But so far, none of them have led to a suspect.

“We wish we had him,” Foster said. “We’d be jumping up and down. But don’t worry, we’ll find him. It’s only a matter of time.”

While Escalera’s family spent the day making funeral arrangements, neighbors said they were shocked to learn of Escalera’s death and described him as friendly and outgoing.

“He was just so neat,” said April Tobias, 27, who lives across the street from the Escalera home. “He’d do anything for me. He was a real sweet person.”

Staring at Escalera’s company van, which was still parked in the family’s driveway, Tobias said that the family was devastated, confused and angry at the senselessness of the murder.

“I hope they get that guy,” Tobias said angrily. “It makes you afraid to even go out in the street. How do I know that I won’t get shot?”