SANTA ANA : Man Fatally Shot Outside His Home

A 32-year-old man was fatally shot in a confrontation with two men in front of his house Monday evening.

Hiawatha English was watching a football game on television with his father about 6:45 p.m. when he got up to go outside, said his father, Abner English, 65.

“It was a matter of minutes (later) that I heard shots out there,” English said in an interview Tuesday at the house in the 500 block of South Shelley Street. “His nephew helped him inside and we called paramedics.”

The suspects ran north on Shelley Street after shooting Hiawatha English twice, Police Lt. Bob Helton said. No weapon was found at the scene, but investigators think the shots were fired from a small-caliber handgun.

The victim died of gunshot wounds to the chest an hour later at UCI Medical Center in Orange, hospital spokeswoman Fran Tardiff said.

Police said Tuesday that no motive for the shooting was known.

“We are treating it as gang-related because of Mr. English’s involvement with gangs in the past,” Helton said.

Abner English denied that his son was involved with gangs and said he did not know why anyone would want to shoot him.

The father, looking tired after a long night without sleep, said he had not been able to cry. “I’m still in shock,” he said.

Hiawatha English was one of nine children, Abner English said, adding that the family has lived in the house for 32 years. The victim, a shipping clerk, is survived by his wife and four children, who all live in San Clemente, he said.