1 Killed, 1 Injured in Separate Shootings

A 16-year-old boy was killed and a 14-year-old was critically wounded in two separate shootings here Sunday that police said were both gang-related.

In the first incident, the 16-year-old victim from Costa Mesa was shot to death by a suspected gang member about 1:55 a.m. as he walked with his cousin on a residential street, said Sgt. Dick Faust of the Santa Ana Police Department. The victim and his cousin, who are not believed to be gang members, were not identified because of their ages.

Faust said the two youths were walking near Civic Center Drive and Bristol Street by the Washington Square neighborhood when they were confronted by a lone gunman who questioned them and asked where they were from.

The assailant, he added, then opened fire with a semi-automatic handgun.

“He asked them where they were from and apparently didn’t get the right answer,” Faust said.

The victim was hit in the neck but he and his cousin, who was unhurt, managed to make it to a relative’s home in the 800 block of north Baker Avenue, where Santa Ana Fire Department paramedics were called.

Taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, the wounded youth underwent surgery but died several hours later, Faust said.

The second shooting occurred about 3 a.m. on the west side of town, where a 14-year-old Santa Ana boy with a gunshot wound to the head was found slumped in the passenger seat of a car, according to Faust.

Police believe the boy, who was also not identified because of his age, was shot somewhere else in the city and then driven to the 3500 block of West Hazard Avenue and left there.

“It is unknown at this time where the shooting occurred,” said Faust, who added that the boy lives about a mile from where he was found.

He was taken to UCI Medical Center by paramedics, where he was listed in extremely critical condition.