Boy, 13, Fatally Shot in Drive-By Attack

Some of Alvaro Garibay’s pals were eating Popsicles on Saturday afternoon while counting the bullet holes in the stucco walls and white picket fence in front of a small house on West 3rd Street.

They said spots of blood near the curb showed where Garibay, a 13-year-old from the neighborhood that they knew as Chucky, often would hang out with his friends, and where police said he was fatally wounded Friday night in a drive-by shooting.

“We were just kicking back, talking to girls” when the shooting started just before 10 p.m., said one of the boys, who like the others declined to disclose his name. “He was standing on the curb and fell into the gutter.”

According to police, Garibay suffered multiple gunshot wounds and was driven by friends to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died.

Also wounded were David Aceves, 22, who was shot in the left arm, and an unidentified 17-year-old, who was shot in the leg, police said. Both were being treated Saturday at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange. No arrests have been made.

Police declined to comment further on the case, but the gang detail has been assigned to investigate the shooting on a street neighbors say is a hangout for gang members.

Residents of the 1000 block of 3rd Street said Saturday that they were fed up with the violence.

Members of a family who live in the bullet-pocked blue stucco house in front of the sidewalk where Garibay was shot down said they were not surprised to hear the shots or the screaming that followed.

Elodia Reyes said in Spanish that she has tried to get gang members to move away from her home and her children said they were afraid to go outside to play.

“I tell them to go away, but they don’t listen,” Reyes said through her 12-year-old daughter, who interpreted for her.

Another neighbor said he has met with the police to try to disperse the gang members.

“It’s terrible, this neighborhood,” said Alberto Martinez, a 53-year-old construction worker who owns the house next to where the shooting occurred.

The community near the Santa Ana Civic Center had been peaceful, said Martinez, who bought his home 16 years ago. But for the last three years, he said, conditions have deteriorated.

Martinez said he knew Garibay well.

“He was a good boy” who usually went home by 9 p.m., Martinez said. He said he can’t understand why the youth stayed out later than usual Friday night.

Martinez said he heard the shots a few minutes after returning home from Lenten services Friday night. He said that earlier in the day, he had tried to persuade Garibay to accompany him to church.

“He said, ‘No, some other time.’ It is too late now,” Martinez said.