Resident Wounds Man He Thought Was Graffiti Tagger
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COSTA MESA — An elderly man, apparently fed up with graffiti near his home, shot and wounded a 24-year-old man who he suspected was a “graffiti tagger” about to spray paint on a fence early Friday morning, police said.
Antonio Sanchez Pinedo, 69, was arrested at his home in the 700 block of Shalimar Drive shortly after the 5:42 a.m. incident.
He is suspected of shooting George Quiroz Perez in the stomach with a handgun after what a witness said was an argument over graffiti, Police Capt. Tom Lazar said.
Perez “had spray paint in his possession,” Lazar said. “They had a verbal altercation over graffiti.”
Perez was with an unidentified companion who also was holding a can of spray paint, police said. That person was not injured.
Perez, of Costa Mesa, was rushed to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana with a single gunshot wound.
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