All’s Normal at Newport Pier After Shooting : Crime: Many believe gunfire between two out-of-town groups, in which one man was killed, was an isolated incident.

A group of rappers danced to live music, while more than 200 beach-goers took in the outdoor concert at the foot of the city pier Sunday afternoon where only a day before, gang violence left one man dead and another injured.

Clearly, the Saturday morning confrontation between two rival out-of-town groups did not appear to bother many in the crowd who flocked to the beach for a day of sunbathing, in-line skating, or just hanging out.

Pat Farmer, owner of popular Charlie’s Chili restaurant, located only yards away from the pier, watched the rap group--N.Y.C. Float Committee--perform its acrobatic dance routine and said she was pleased that the incident didn’t frighten people away.

“I think it was isolated, something that happened here but could have happened in Huntington Beach or in Laguna Beach,” Farmer said. “The gangs just happened to meet up here.”

Police said shots rang out on the courtyard at the foot of the pier after a brief encounter between gangs from Santa Ana and Ontario. Jorge Rico, 23, of Santa Ana, was killed in the gunfire and Jose Ceja, 23, of Garden Grove, was wounded. Police arrested Enrique Morales, 18, of Ontario, on suspicion of murder as he tried to leave the parking lot next to the pier.

“It’s usually a safe neighborhood,” said Newport Beach resident Steve Gramme, as he sat on his bicycle near the pier Sunday. “Sometimes, I’m out here until 2 a.m. at the bars. I was out here a few hours before the shooting. I hope it’s isolated. It makes you not want to come out here at night.”

As they stood in a line outside the popular Mutt Lynch’s on Sunday afternoon, brothers Mike and George Thomson said they wouldn’t let a shooting scare them away from the area where they grew up.

“The police have a pretty good handle on things,” George Thomson said. “They pull over anyone who they think is suspicious. I don’t feel any less safe.”

But some fear that the 10 p.m. curfew instituted this summer at city and state beaches in neighboring Huntington Beach has moved gang troubles south to Newport Beach.

“You come down here to have a good time and then you have to deal with people coming down here to shoot each other,” said Mark Steckline, 25, who skated from his home in Huntington Beach to the pier on Sunday.

“We were bummed when they starting closing Huntington because of the problems they were having there with the gangs,” Steckline said. “But now they are coming down here. It’s like you can’t do anything anymore.”

Mike Calderon, who rents a beachfront apartment a short distance away from the pier, also pointed to the Huntington Beach curfew as a problem for Newport.

“The gangs have no place to go now,” said Calderon, 47. “They are looking for a place to hang out and they have guns. The closest place for them to go is the Newport Beach parking lot near the pier. For the last two or three weeks, I’ve watched them come in carloads.”

Calderon, who has lived in the area for 14 years, said he witnessed a similar shooting a year ago near the pier in which two people were wounded.

“Quite frankly, residents don’t like this, but we don’t want the beach closed,” he said.

“I commend the Newport Beach police because they caught everyone and they do a great job,” he said. “But something has to be done about this.”