Police Arrest Suspect in Orange Graffiti Attack

An unusual show of cooperation between law enforcement, residents and even some gang members led to the arrest Friday of one of three men suspected of shooting a woman after she tried to stop them from spraying graffiti on a garage door this week.

“We’ve had an outpouring of calls from the public wanting to help us find these guys, including people who claim to be gang members who are mad about this as well,” Orange Police Lt. Ed Tunstall said. “This is the kind of thing that hits them in the chest . . . because it involves an innocent bystander.”

The attack reverberated through Southern California, prompting dozens of people to write letters and send flowers to the shooting victim through the Police Department and UCI Medical Center, where she was initially hospitalized, one of her friends said.

Because of all the attention, the victim, an Anaheim bus driver and part-time accountant whose identity has not been released by police for fear of her safety, requested that she be moved to another, undisclosed hospital.

“She’s doing fine . . . and pleased that there’s been an arrest,” said the friend, who asked to remain anonymous because he had helped police in the investigation. “She is swamped with letters and things like that. Lots of people are wanting to let her know that they are pleased with what she did, and tried to thank her for it.”

The woman was listed in good condition Friday, Tunstall said.

A team of 10 Orange police officers worked around the clock on the case. After three days of interviewing dozens of witnesses and pursuing leads, investigators obtained search warrants for five locations in Santa Ana and Anaheim, Tunstall said. While serving the warrants early Friday, investigators arrested John Arnold Villalobos, 25, at his Santa Ana home in connection with the shooting.

Villalobos was booked into the Orange City Jail on suspicion of attempted murder.

Investigators also confiscated “quite a bit of evidence,” including two vehicles involved in the crime, Tunstall said.

Authorities still are searching for two other suspects--Jorge Francisco Trejo, 20, of Santa Ana, and Lisandro Fernandez, 20, of Anaheim--in connection with the attack.

Fernandez was described by his probation officer last December as an admitted gang member who “put the community at risk.” She recommended that Fernandez be sent to state prison after he was arrested for carrying a semiautomatic rifle and a magazine clip--a violation of his probation. However, he was sentenced to 75 days in County Jail and placed on another three years’ probation, according to court records.

Police said Fernandez’s street name is “Casper, the ghost,” which is tattooed on his chest, along with a phrase: “Love don’t live here anymore.”

Tunstall said a break in the case came when investigators linked an altercation between rival gangs early Monday evening to the shooting later that night.

A confrontation “having to do with one gang saying something disrespectful to another” at a billiard hall led to a fight, and several young men were kicked out of the establishment, Tunstall said. But before leaving, some of the young men went into a restroom and spray-painted the walls with their gang sign.

After leaving the pool hall, police said, the young men drove in two cars to a neighborhood near Lemon Street and Collins Avenue in Orange and spray-painted their insignia outside a home where they believed a rival gang member lived.

The Anaheim driver, who was on her way to visit a friend, spotted the men about 8 p.m. and honked her horn, hoping to scare them off, she told police. Instead, they approached her car and began spray-painting her windshield and passenger-side window, police said.

In fear, the woman tried to drive off, but one of the cars pulled up. Several shots were fired, one of which pierced the driver’s door and hit her in the stomach, investigators said. She managed to drive to her friend’s house, where she sought help.

Tunstall said that one of the surprises in the case was the telephone calls investigators received from gang members angered by the attack.

“There was probably ulterior motives for them to call in,” he said. “They thought [the shooting] was stupid and sort of brings down the heat for everybody else.”

Indeed, as a result of the shooting, the Police Department decided to increase its gang unit from six to 10 members. And on Friday, the department decided that it would assign 20 additional officers whose focus would be to suppress gang activity, Tunstall said.

“This [shooting] challenges the public’s sense of safety. They’re saying, ‘Oh my gosh, that could have been me,’ ” Tunstall said. “We want them to know that we’re taking this very seriously. We’re not going to tolerate it.”

Tunstall added that residents of neighborhood where the shooting occurred came forward with “bits and pieces” of evidence that helped investigators.

The shooting also has brought the neighborhood closer together.

“This business proves we have to keep a better watch for our neighborhoods,” said Fred Allen, 67, a retired aerospace worker who lives in the neighborhood. “It’s easy to just stay inside and not worry about each other. But in this day, we have to look out for each other.”

Mayor Joanne Coontz praised residents and police for working together and sending a message that the city has “a zero-tolerance policy against gangs.”

“It’s terrible when this kind of random act of violence occurs,” Coontz said. “It made me extremely angry.”

Other residents said that the shooting shook their sense of security in this placid tree-lined neighborhood.

“I don’t think I’ll feel completely safe until everyone gets caught,” said Nancy Burton, 18. “It’s scary to think that we have gang activity in this area. It’s usually so quiet here. Everyone is a little scared.”

Neighbor Margie Garcia, 33, agreed: “People are talking about that poor woman and how she was shot for doing the right thing. Everyone is upset about it. . . . They don’t want it to happen again.”

Also contributing to this story were Times correspondent Hope Hamashige and staff writer Kim Sanchez.

* LONG RECORD: Parole officer urged prison--not probation--for suspect. A25

* TAGGERS RETURN: Central O.C.’s lull in graffiti war has been shattered. A26