Youth Reportedly Bound for Church Retreat Shot to Death

A 15-year-old Santa Ana youth who was apparently headed for a church retreat this weekend was shot and killed Friday in a convenience store parking lot, police said.

Lazaro Omar Acosta, Jr. was shot at about 6:45 p.m. as he stood near the car that he had just driven into the Qwik Korner parking lot at Lewis Street and Garden Grove Boulevard, according to Orange police.

The armed assailant leaped from a car along Lewis Street, ran a short distance toward the parking lot and opened fire on Acosta, police said. Homicide investigators said they did not know why Acosta was shot and did not have anyone in custody late Friday.

“We have no reason right now to believe he was involved in anything prior” that would have led to the shooting, said Orange Police Sgt. Larry Pore, who added that it was unclear if anything was said before the shooting or if the attack was tied to gang activity.

Paramedics took Acosta to UCI Medical Center, where he died a short time later from a bullet wound to the chest, police said.

The shooting took place just seconds after a spate of gunfire erupted along Lewis Street, north of the convenience store and across the street from St. Callistus Catholic Church.

Several people were gathered in the church parking lot, apparently in preparation for a weekend’s retreat in the San Bernardino Mountains. Witnesses to the shooting told police that Acosta was planning to go along on the retreat.

Acosta’s mother, who apparently was among the crowd near the church, saw her son lying on the ground and bleeding and began shouting “Get a priest, get a priest!” said Eddy Gutierrez, a receptionist at St. Callistus.

Gutierrez said he ran into the church to summon Father Carlos Martinez, who administered last rites in the parking lot, he said.