Suspect in Fatal Shooting Claims Self-Defense : Crime: Former gang member says he thought he was about to be shot, but police find no other weapons in schoolyard violence, and no one corroborates that other shots were fired from victims’ van.

The former gang member suspected of killing a young father of three playing basketball in Santa Ana has told police that he acted in self-defense because he believed that he was about to be shot.

Mauro Vergara Meza, 31, was fatally wounded and his brother critically wounded after the April 15 altercation at a schoolyard Santa Ana High School basketball court. Witnesses said the Meza brothers were among a group that was fired on after they refused to give a light to several strangers who had watched their game.

After first denying any role in the shooting, Uciel T. Murgo, 19, told Santa Ana police Friday that he had fired at the Mezas’ van but that he did so because he believed that Mauro Meza was reaching for a weapon, according to court filings.

No weapons were found at the scene, police said.

Murgo made a brief appearance in Municipal Court on Tuesday and was ordered held on $250,000 bail. He is to be arraigned May 8 on charges of murder and attempted murder.

Murgo was picked up for questioning in front of his house early Friday by officers, who asked him to accompany them voluntarily to police headquarters, a police report said. Murgo agreed.

He at first denied any role in the shooting, but when pressed by police, Murgo agreed to submit to a polygraph test, then changed his mind. Shortly thereafter, the report said, police advised Murgo of his legal rights, saying he was a criminal suspect.

Police said Murgo was among a group sitting and drinking beer in the schoolyard bleachers while the Mezas and their friends and relatives played an evening basketball game.

In explaining his actions, Murgo said the Meza van, which carried nine people, had nearly struck several people who were near the bleachers.

As he walked up to the van, Murgo told police, he heard someone ask for a match, then thought he heard the sound of a gun being readied to fire from within the vehicle--”the metal slide action being pulled back of a semiautomatic-type weapon.”

From outside the passenger-side window, Murgo saw the driver “reaching behind his seat. . . . I thought he was going for a gun,” he said.

At that point, Murgo told police, he shouted, “He’s got a gun! He’s going to shoot!”

In response, Murgo said, he closed his eyes and fired once with his own 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, which Murgo said had been stolen.

The van then pulled forward, the doors opened and he thought he heard the sound of a small gun being fired, Murgo told police. By then, Murgo said, he had fled to the bleachers and was down on his stomach.

He fired five or six shots at the van as it drove out the gate, after seeing gun muzzle flashes from the vehicle, Murgo told police.

“I didn’t want to shoot anybody,” he told police, “just wanted to shoot at the car.”

No other witnesses to the shooting reported guns or firing from the Meza van, police said. Police have not identified any of those in the van as gang members, though they have said Murgo is a member of a local gang.

Murgo has denied that, telling police that until three years ago he was a member of a local gang but dropped out after his child was born, the police report said.

Murgo did tell police that gang members frequent the Santa Ana house he shares with his brother, court papers said.

At the end of the interview, Murgo was arrested on suspicion of one count of murder and eight counts of attempted murder.