LAGUNA BEACH : Police Have No Leads in Beach Shooting

Police were still searching Tuesday for two men who shot and killed a young man and wounded another after an argument at Aliso Beach during the weekend.

Police said the deadly argument started because the victims thought the men had thrown water balloons at them. But it now appears that their own friends had thrown the water balloons, and the whole confrontation was unnecessary.

“It turns out their friends were the ones playing pranks, not the (assailants) at all,” Police Sgt. Ray Lardie said.

The incident began shortly after 9:30 p.m. Saturday as a group of teen-agers sat around a campfire near Aliso Pier. When the water balloons were thrown at the group from a cliff, two members of the group walked up the hill and confronted two men, Lardie said.

Heated words were exchanged, and there was some pushing and shoving. One of the men threatened the victims with a knife.

Police said that as the victims retreated, one man fired three shots from a .380-caliber handgun, mortally wounding Jeff Lee Wilson, a 19-year-old painter from Ontario who was shot in the head and back. He died at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center on Monday.

His friend, Micah Stephanian, a 19-year-old student at Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, was shot in the arm and was treated at South Coast Medical Center.

Lardie said investigators had no leads in the beach shooting. He said the assailants are believed to be about 5 feet 7 and 5 feet 10, each weighing about 180 pounds. They left the beach in a full-size, light-colored 1970s car.

Lardie asks that anyone who might have witnessed the incident contact Police Investigator Ron Sapp at (714) 497-0377.