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2 Men Killed, 1 Wounded in 3 Shootings in O.C. : Violence: Injured victim is arrested on assault charges; two others are held as murder suspects.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

Three shootings left two Orange County men dead and a third under arrest and in critical condition, police said Sunday.

A 54-year-old man was found shot to death in his insurance office in Laguna Hills early Sunday by his son, who went looking for his father after he failed to come home the previous evening, an Orange County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.

Homicide investigators said they have no motive for the apparent shooting death of Dirk St. Claire Houston, who was found dead at 1:29 a.m. in his insurance office in the 23000 block of La Cadena Drive, Sheriff’s Lt. Robert Rivas said.

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When Houston did not return home and his wife was unable to reach him by telephone, she asked their son, Greg Houston, to go to his father’s office to investigate, Rivas said.

Greg Houston found the office unlocked and his father dead. He telephoned police from a nearby motel, Rivas said.

Meanwhile, in Santa Ana two men were shot in unrelated outbursts of violence.

A 22-year-old man was critically wounded early Sunday following an altercation with a security guard in a Santa Ana apartment complex parking lot, police said.

The incident began about 2:24 a.m. when three security guards on foot patrol were assaulted by a group of men in a parking lot in the 800 block of South Fairview Street, Santa Ana Police Sgt. William Ehart said. One of the men picked up a large board and advanced on the security guards, police said.

Ehart said the security guards ordered the man to stop, but Valdivia Macario, 22, who lives in the complex, allegedly continued to advance with the board. A security guard suffered bruises.

Macario was shot and transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange, Ehart said. Marcario was also arrested on charges of assault with a deadly weapon on the security guard, Ehart said.

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Police did not release the name of the security guard who fired the shot.

Less than an hour earlier, a 23-year-old man was shot to death following an altercation with two men in a convenience store parking lot, police said.

The victim, whose name was being withheld pending notification of next of kin, had purchased beer at the AM-PM Mini Market at West 1st Street and Broadway, Ehart said.

The victim became involved in an altercation with two men who took his beer from him, he said. The market clerk said the two men had been hanging around the store trying to take beer from other patrons, Ehart said.

When the victim returned to the market about 2 a.m. with a handgun, one of the two men shot him once in the head with a rifle, police said.

A short time later, police arrested Filia Uipi, 30, of Santa Ana, and Vika Pea, 31, of Orange, not far from the scene of the shooting and booked them on suspicion of murder, Ehart said. It was not known which of the suspects fired the shot, he said.

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