Santa Ana : Youth Critically Wounded by Gunfire

A 17-year-old boy was in critical condition Wednesday at a Santa Ana hospital after he was shot in the back by unknown assailants who had stripped his friend’s pickup, police said.

The wounded youth was visiting friends at Halesworth Apartments in the 300 block of West Halesworth Street early Tuesday when he confronted two men stealing from his friend’s pickup.

The men, who had stripped the vehicle of its sound system and steeringwheel covering, fled in a two-tone brown pickup but returned later in the afternoon to taunt the boy, who was inside the apartment playing cards with his friends, police said.

The boy was shot moments after he peeked at them through the apartment’s sliding glass door. The boy had turned to protect the children of his friend when he was hit once in the back. The bullet pierced a lung and exited through the chest, police said.

Police who were called to the apartment chased the suspects, who abandoned their vehicle at 10th and Olive streets.