Man Slain in Market Parking Lot : Violence: He’s shot 10 times at close range as a friend watches helplessly and shoppers scatter outside the Costa Mesa store. A suspect, 28, is arrested in Santa Ana.

A man was shot 10 times at close range Thursday and died face-down in a supermarket parking lot while a woman friend watched helplessly, witnesses and police said. Police arrested a suspect hours later.

Paramedics and police responded at 2 p.m. to a call of shots fired at the Stater Bros. market at 2180 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa Police Investigator George Wilson said. The body of a man lay between two parked pickup trucks.

Witnesses reported the assailant’s license plate, and a 28-year-old man later was arrested by police in Santa Ana, Wilson said.

Ken Cotton, whose yard abuts the market parking lot, said he was watching television when he heard the first three shots fired. He looked out his window, he said, and saw a body on the ground.

He heard another shot and ducked. Then he counted six more reports.

“The guy was already laying down before the last (shots),” he said.

Cotton said he did not see the shooter because everyone in the parking lot ran after the man opened fire. “People were scattering everywhere,” Cotton said. “I didn’t know who was who.” When the shooting stopped, he climbed over a concrete wall to help the victim.

“He was lying down,” Cotton said. “I ran over with a blanket, hoping he was alive . . . but he wasn’t alive.” He said a woman screamed “they shot my boyfriend!” and cried loudly next to the body.

The woman later sat in a police car while officers cordoned off the scene, covered the body and began to look for evidence. According to a police spokeswoman, the assailant threw the gun from his white Volkswagen Golf at Newport Boulevard and 19th Street.

Costa Mesa police broadcast a description of the car and license plate as it headed north into Santa Ana, according to Lt. Robert Helton, of the Santa Ana Police Department. An officer on a stakeout near the corner of Fairview and Willits streets saw the Volkswagen and followed it while calling for a backup unit. At the 1100 block of North English Street the car was forced over and the driver was take into custody without incident, Helton said.

Costa Mesa police were notified, and they arrested the suspect.

Wilson said police would not release the name of the suspect until further investigation, and the victim’s name was withheld until his family was notified. No motive is known for the killing, Wilson said. He said it was the city’s second killing of the year.

At Stater Bros. market, shopper Ruth Waller, a 40-year resident of Costa Mesa, said she has “shopped here since this store opened. For God’s sake, who would believe it,” she said as she watched police detectives investigate the shooting.

Times staff writer Mark I. Pinsky contributed to this story