Truck Passenger Shot to Death, Driver Injured

A passenger in a pickup truck stopped at a red light Monday shot the driver and another passenger, then jumped into a getaway car that also had stopped at the same intersection, police said.

The wounded passenger, in his 20s, was dead on arrival at UCI Medical Center in Orange, Lt. Robert Helton said. He did not carry identification, police said.

The driver, a 26-year-old resident of Santa Ana, was listed in very critical condition at the same hospital. Officials declined to release his name until relatives could be notified.

Both victims were shot in the head by what appears to have been a handgun, investigators said.

The Nissan truck was northbound on Bristol Street about 5 p.m. and had stopped in the left lane at Civic Center Drive when the gunman, sitting in the passenger seat, shot through an open sliding window at a passenger in the truck’s camper. The gunman then ran around to the driver’s side and shot the driver through the window, witnesses told police.

He then got into a black Nissan Sentra that had stopped next to the truck and was seen fleeing north on Bristol Street.

“We have no motive at this time, but it does not appear to be gang-related,” Helton said.

Officers closed the northbound lanes of Bristol Street between Civic Center Drive and 5th Street for nearly three hours.