Gang Killing Also Wounded Santa Ana : Violence: City sadly searches its soul as officials reassess deterrence efforts. Six detectives take the case.

Anger, fear, frustration and sorrow set in across the city Friday as officials reassessed their anti-gang efforts in the wake of the killing of a Santa Ana man and the wounding of three of his relatives by suspected gang members.

At Police Department headquarters, officials took the unusual step of assigning six homicide detectives to the case that, so far, has turned up few leads.

“These guys disappeared into the night,” said Lt. Robert Helton, a department spokesman.

Supt. Rudy Castruita of the Santa Ana Unified School District called on police to increase security around Santa Ana High School next week when students return from their spring break vacation.

The victim, 31-year-old Mauro Meza, and eight companions had just left the school’s basketball court when the shootings occurred Thursday evening.

They had been playing a pickup game after work and decided to leave after a group, apparently gang members, taunted them, blocked their departure and then sprayed bullets into the van being driven by Meza, hitting him in the mouth and head.

“Our schools are safe,” Castruita said. The problem “is around the perimeter of the school. I think we owe it to our pupils to have a secure and safe environment around the campus.”

Mayor Daniel H. Young and other City Council members pointed to anti-gang programs sponsored by the city, schools and churches, but expressed the view that the problem would not be solved unless neighborhood residents actively stand up to the gangs that are paralyzing their community.

Young said that the predominantly youthful gang members must be confronted and made to realize that they are hurting their fellow Latinos more than anyone else. The problem will not be solved “until that segment of the Hispanic community realizes they are destroying their own race, that they are destroying their own people--both in lives and reputation.

“We have to find some way to communicate to those people and say, ‘Please, out of pride, why would you continue to do this?’ ” Young said.

Still stunned by the senseless and unprovoked attack, Meza’s family and friends gathered at his Camile Street home where his widow, Maria Guadalupe Filiverta Silva, grieved.

“She feels real bad,” said a relative, Cirilo Guevarra, adding that the family was also struggling to raise the money to send Meza’s body back to Mexico for burial.

Of the three remaining victims, only Meza’s 24-year-old brother, Winulfo, remained hospitalized at UCI Medical Center in Orange. He suffered a gunshot wound to the head and was listed Friday in serious condition.

Another brother, Benito Meza, 20, and a cousin, Catarino Guevarra, 18, were released earlier from area hospitals.

“I don’t remember anything about what happened. Nothing,” said Benito Meza, seated near a living-room table brimming with burning candles and photos of his dead brother. “I didn’t realize I was shot,” Benito Meza said, until after the van he was riding in came to a stop about a block from his Camile Street home.

At the start of a weekend that was supposed to be a holiday celebration, there was instead sadness filled with too many questions and too few answers.

Some witnesses told police that somewhere between seven and 17 people, ranging from teen-agers to men in their early 20s, surrounded the van as Meza attempted to drive out of the schoolyard.

With only skimpy information to go on, Helton was appealing for the public’s help.

“Somewhere out there, they (the attackers) must be talking and bragging about it, and we’re sure some people are hearing some things,” Helton said. “These people should call.”

The crime in this neighborhood is not unusually high, Helton said. But the latest incident underscored the increasing acts of violence committed by gangs.

Since the start of year, seven gang-related homicides have occurred in the city, compared to four for the same time period in 1991, Helton said.

To counter gang activities, the department maintains a nine-member task force to track the illegal activities committed by gang members, Helton said.

“We know locations, we know individuals, we monitor who is in jail, who is not in jail; we monitor pending cases and who is on probation,” he said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Doug Woodsmall, who heads the prosecutor’s 3-year-old gang unit, said that “putting people in jail is helpful, but it is not the total answer.”

Pointing to the need for gang prevention programs in the grade schools, he added: “It’s a broad-based effort that we have to make and we’re beginning to see that in Santa Ana.”

The cornerstone of the city’s gang prevention campaign is the PRIDE program, which stands for Parks and Recreation Inspire Dignity and Esteem. In addition to one hour per week of classroom instruction, PRIDE also offers three hours per week of after-school activities in sports, the arts and homework study.

Originally designed for elementary school children beginning in the third grade, Recreation and Community Services Director Allen E. Doby said the 3-year-old program has expanded to teen-agers and now reaches 7,000 students in 21 schools.

“The kids themselves call us and tell us of friends of theirs who they think are at risk,” Doby said.

The schools also offer training sessions for teachers and parents so that they may recognize the signs of gang involvement by schoolchildren, officials said.

But as they attempt to reach the younger generation, officials concede they may have already lost those entrenched in the gangs.

Last fall, a Santa Ana High School teacher was caught in the cross-fire of a gun battle at the end of the school day. She was not hit, but Castruita immediately won the city’s agreement to close off a street that runs alongside the campus and intensify police patrols as students leave for their homes.

Council members Patricia A. McGuigan and Robert L. Richardson agreed with the mayor that the neighborhoods needed to work together to help themselves.

“I think that everyone as an individual has got to look to their own situation and say, ‘What am I willing to personally do? Am I willing to adopt that classroom, am I willing to go on the boys’ club board?” Richardson said.

McGuigan, who has known the fear of a drive-by shooting after teen-agers fired shots into her neighbor’s house, said: “I am just appalled at this sort of thing going on, and I guess what’s disturbing is that I just don’t know what we can do about it.”

But some ideas were presented to the council last week by Santa Ana attorney Alfredo Amezcua, the former president of the Orange County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Having tired of constant newspaper reports of gang violence in the city, Amezcua presented a 10-point plan, including among other things the establishment of a “gang prevention hot line” that he hoped the city would adopt. Without the support and active leadership of the city’s elected officials, Amezcua argued, citizens would be afraid to get involved.

The mayor was receptive to some of Amezcua’s proposals but said that he generally disagrees with the proposition that community members will not report gang activities because they fear retribution.

“I think it’s a cop-out for somebody to say, ‘Gee, I am the parent of a gang member and I would like to help somebody solve the problem, but I am concerned about the outcome for me.’ If they don’t do something, they are going to lose their child,” Young said.

Mayor Pro Tem Miguel A. Pulido said that as a Latino, he becomes frustrated when people ask: “Why are Mexicans, or why are Hispanics always doing this?”

He said immigrants did not know about gangs until they arrived in the United States, and what they learn once they arrive in Santa Ana is that in order to survive, they must belong to gangs to receive protection.

“We need to try to be role models as much as possible,” Pulido said. “We need to be doing more reaching out to the community. Sometimes it takes senseless things like this killing to energize people.”

Of the five council members available for comment, only Councilman John Acosta said city government was not doing enough.

Times staff writers Davan Maharaj and Eric Young contributed to this report.

Juvenile Crime Rising

Arrests of those under 18 in Santa Ana for violent crimes declined between 1986 and 1988, but increased dramatically in 1989, when robbery and assault totals soared.

Change from Year Murders Rapes Robberies Assaults Total Previous Year 1986 5 5 59 28 97 -4.0% 1987 6 4 45 34 89 -8.2% 1988 9 5 27 34 75 -15.7% 1989 2 1 62 59 124 65.3% 1990 3 2 77 53 135 8.9%

NOTE: 1991 juvenile statistics have not yet been released.

Source: California Bureau of Crime Statistics