Man Shot in Head; Police Arrest the Suspected Attacker

A man was hospitalized with a head wound and another man was in police custody Wednesday after one shot the other, then got into a fistfight with him on a San Juan Capistrano street, an Orange County sheriff’s spokesman said.

The 7 a.m. attack may have stemmed from a domestic dispute, Lt. Hector Rivera said.

The wounded man, whom police did not identify, was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he was in fair condition.

Leopoldo Perez Ramirez, 60, of San Juan Capistrano was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, Rivera said. He was being held Wednesday in the Orange County Jail.

He said Ramirez, driving a light-blue Ford truck, fired at least five rounds from a small-caliber semiautomatic handgun at the other man, who was driving a van in the 31000 block of Via Belardis.

Though wounded, the van driver managed to exit his vehicle, and the two men then fought on the street, Rivera said.

“The first deputy at the scene observed a physical fight on the sidewalk and separated the two,” Rivera said. “The victim was trying to restrain the suspect. The deputy noticed that the man’s head was bleeding.”

Apparently no one else was on the street when the attack occurred, Rivera said.