Boy, 15, Dies in Drive-By; 2 Youths Injured : Crime: Gunfire from two cars rakes people leaving a birthday party in Garden Grove. The dead youth was a high school sophomore there.

A 15-year-old Garden Grove High School sophomore was killed and two other boys were wounded late Saturday when gunmen in two cars opened fire on a group of youths leaving a birthday party on a quiet residential street, police and witnesses said Sunday.

The boy died of a gunshot wound to the chest several blocks away on Gary Street as his friends struggled to get him to a hospital, according to Sally Heraldez, 19. Heraldez lives at the house in the 11600 block of Faye Avenue where the attack occurred at 10:50 p.m.

She and others at the scene identified the dead teen-ager as Cesar Torres of Garden Grove. Police refused to release the identity, saying they never disclose the name of a juvenile involved in a crime. The youth’s family could not be reached.

“He was a nice kid. He wasn’t any gangbanger,” a shaken Heraldez said Sunday as friends of Torres gathered on the blood-stained walkway near where he was shot. She said he was her sister’s boyfriend and that he had been threatened by members of a Santa Ana gang for ignoring them.

“He had told the gang members to leave him alone,” Heraldez said. “So those other guys got offended and sent him a death threat.”

Sgt. Scott Watson of the Garden Grove Police Department said it was unknown whether gang members had done the shooting but that “gang investigators are looking into the incident.”

A neighbor who said he witnessed the shooting, and asked not to be identified, had just gotten home when two cars rounded the corner of Patricia Drive on to Faye and someone in a back seat started firing a handgun.

The cars did a U-turn in the street and came back and someone again opened fire at the group of youths standing in front of the home.

“It happened real quick,” the witness said. “I saw two people get hit right off the bat. . . . Some people carried one of them inside and then they brought him back out again. . . . Another guy was hopping around, holding his leg.”

The two wounded juveniles were taken by friends to Garden Grove Medical Clinic, Watson said. Both had gunshot wounds in the legs, he said.

Many residents and schoolchildren from the nearly 40-year-old neighborhood gathered on Faye Avenue on Sunday, less than a block from Faylane Elementary School, and talked of how the incident shattered a typically quiet Saturday night.

“I’ve lived here since 1957 and we’ve never had any problems,” said Carl Fleck, 69, who lives across the street from where the shootings occurred. “We heard the shots and when I went out the front door a red car zipped up and I heard someone holler, ‘Call an ambulance!’ ”

Fleck said the neighborhood was friendly and full of families and young children. Each year, most of the neighbors gather for a local Fourth of July parade, Fleck said.

“We really haven’t had a hint of problem here,” Fleck said. “This is a quiet, peaceful place.”

Watson said no suspects were in custody Sunday afternoon and that the investigation is continuing.

Authorities did not release any information about suspects or vehicles participating in the shooting.