SANTA ANA : 3 Gunmen Chase, Fatally Shoot Man

Three gunmen chased and fatally shot a 20-year-old man on the sidewalk outside his home, firing into his body even as he lay on the ground, police said Monday.

The assailants, described as 18 to 20 years old, ran from the scene in the 2500 block of South Baker Street, leaving Omar Cisneros to bleed to death Sunday night, police said.

Police said Cisneros had been talking to his mother, Lupita, shortly after 10:30 p.m. on the steps of their apartment. Cisneros turned to approach a car filled with girls that pulled up nearby when the gunfire suddenly erupted, police and witnesses said.

Cisneros tried to flee, running south. The gunmen chased him, firing as they ran, some of their shots hitting cars parked along the street, police said.

Cisneros ran about 100 feet before he was struck at least once and fell to the ground, police said. The gunmen were upon him in seconds, shooting him repeatedly with at least one handgun and one rifle as he lay on the ground. No one else was wounded in the gunfire, police said.

The gunmen remained at large Monday.

“All this gang violence is going to end up killing every son,” said Everett Aldapa, 28, Cisneros’ uncle. Aldapa, who lives one block from the shooting scene, tried to stop the bleeding from his nephew’s chest with a cloth after the attack.

“All I want is for the violence to stop. It’s not worth it,” Aldapa said.

Cisneros, who police said was a gang member, apparently was not armed, Lt. Robert Helton said.

Lupita Cisneros, who brought her family to Orange County from Guadalajara in 1977, said Omar had been talking recently about returning.

“ ‘The streets are getting dangerous now, Mama,’ ” she recalled her son saying. But he couldn’t leave, she said, because he was on parole from state prison, where he had served time for battery and assault with a deadly weapon on a man in Santa Ana, according to Orange County Superior Court records and the state Department of Corrections. One of the terms of his parole was that he could not leave the country, said his mother.

Despite his recent fears, Cisneros was excited about computer classes he was taking in Santa Ana in connection with the terms of his parole, said his mother.

On Monday, she accepted kisses and hugs from several young men from the neighborhood who said they knew Cisneros.