4 Injured in 2 Drive-By Shootings in Santa Ana

Four men were wounded when shots were fired from a passing car at two groups of people in a pair of late-night attacks one block apart--the latest in a recent spate of street violence, police said Wednesday.

The Tuesday night shootings occurred within minutes of each other on North Gunther and North Jackson streets, police said. Authorities did not know why the shots were fired, but were investigating a possible link to drugs.

“They just passed and shot,” said Juan Clemente, 20, a victim of one of the attacks. He had come to Orange County with a friend one month ago from Acapulco, Mexico, looking for field work. “The pain was intense, and I was bleeding bad.”

The incidents occurred after two unrelated shootings in different Santa Ana neighborhoods in the past five days.

Last Thursday night, a 2-year-old boy was shot and killed as his father carried him along North Garfield Street. The next day, a 17-year-old Century High School student was shot in the head and killed as he drove near the campus with his brother and cousin.

The closely timed violence is “totally coincidental,” Police Sgt. Art Echternacht said. “In our business, we get peaks and valleys. It looks like we’re on the upswing and I hope it’s reached its peak.”

Police said the Tuesday night shootings began about 9:20 when shots were fired at a group of men standing near North Jackson and West 5th streets, hitting one man in the knee.

Moments later, the same car raced through a narrow alley to North Gunther Street and an assailant sprayed about a dozen bullets at a group of men near a catering truck, wounding three of them, according to authorities.

The assailant, who might have used a semiautomatic 9-millimeter handgun, sped away in a small white car on West 5th Street and remained at large Wednesday.

The victims, all Santa Ana residents, were treated for gunshot wounds to the leg and arms at local hospitals. In addition to Clemente, police identified the others as Pedro Ledesma, 32; Jose Garcia, 19, and Guillermo Puente, 22.

Garcia and Puente were treated and released. Clemente and Ledesma were listed in stable condition, hospital officials said.

Police said it appears the victims did not know each other and investigators do not think they were gang members. “It’s going to take some more digging to get some more answers” from witnesses or other residents, Echternacht said.

Clemente, whose right leg was pierced by a bullet, said from his hospital bed that he did not know why the shootings took place. He shrugged when asked what he thought triggered the attack.

He recalled that he was one of several men eating dinner near a catering truck on North Gunther Street when he heard a succession of gunshots nearby. Moments passed and suddenly a car pulled past the lunch truck and the shooting began again without warning, he said.

He fell, he said, and saw two other men bleeding on the sidewalk near him. The car drove out of sight.