GARDEN GROVE : Gunman Sought in Drive-By Slaying

Detectives searched Tuesday for the gunman who opened fire on a home and killed a 19-year-old man as he watched television in the living room. It was the second attack on the home in three weeks.

Jarold Eugene Wright Jr. died late Monday night after a bullet tore through a window and into his right side, police said.

Paramedics took Wright to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died shortly after the 9 p.m. shooting, police said.

Police said they do not know if Wright was the intended victim.

“He was not a gang member, he was not into drugs,” said Sgt. Doug Morrill. “There is nothing recent that we know of that would cause someone to be upset with him,” Morrill said.

The Monday night shooting came about three weeks after a similar shooting in which a gunman in a car opened fire on the one-story residence in the 11600 block of Frederick Drive. Wright was home at the time but was not injured, police said.

Investigators believe the same type of gun, a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun, was used in both shootings. But police do not have a detailed description of the gunmen or their vehicle.

In Monday’s shooting, a small, dark car slowed in front of Wright’s home and a gunman fired about eight times, Morrill said. Only one bullet hit Wright.

On Oct. 8 an unknown gunman fired about seven shots at the house, police said. Police said they did not think there was any connection between the October shooting and a fight that Wright was involved in with another motorist in Garden Grove four days earlier.

During that fight, the other motorist allegedly stabbed Wright in the hand with a screwdriver. Police arrested a 17-year-old Garden Grove resident in connection with the stabbing, Morrill said. The 17-year-old, whose name was withheld because of his name, is awaiting trial, Morrill said.

Investigators have not established a connection between the traffic fight and the shootings, Morrill said.

Wright, unemployed, had lived at the Frederick Drive home for about four months with his uncle, Bill Hopkins, family members and neighbors said. Previously, he lived with his eldest sister in Garden Grove.

Wright, the father of a 2-year-old boy who was staying with his ex-girlfriend, was thinking of joining the Marine Corps, said Bonnie Wright, 24, the dead man’s eldest sister.

“I can’t see how anyone could do this to any human life,” she said.