Officer Released From Hospital

An officer who was shot in the chin Tuesday while chasing shooting suspects in Sylmar was released from the hospital Wednesday.

Meanwhile, four suspects were under arrest on suspicion of shooting the San Fernando police officer and killing a 17-year-old male during the earlier shooting.

Officer Marshall Mack, 35, is the first police official of the tiny department--which prides itself on community policing, including foot and bike patrols--to be shot since Christmas Eve 1980, when Officer Dennis Webb was slain, according to Lt. Dan Peavy of the San Fernando department.

The slain teenager was identified Wednesday as Saul De Santiago Jr., a Sylmar High School student, who was shot at least four times in the face and chest by two assailants who came out of a white van and opened fire, police said.

The suspects, taken to the San Fernando City Jail, were identified as Tony Moreno, 20; Juan Enrique Corral, 18; and Julio Ernesto Quintanilla, 21. A 16-year-old boy, whose name was not released because of his age, was also arrested.

All live in the San Fernando Valley and are members of gangs, Peavy said.

There was no indication that the victim was a gang member, Peavy said. But his brother, Edwin, said it was not the first time he had been the target of shooting.

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Edwin De Santiago, 15, said Wednesday that shots were fired last week at a car Saul was driving near San Fernando Junior High School. In that incident, Edwin said, a single bullet lodged in the car.

That shooting was not reported to the police, De Santiago family members said.

Saul De Santiago was described by several officials at Sylmar High School and John F. Kennedy High in Granada Hills, which he had attended until recently.

“He’s a teacher’s dream,” said Harvey Phillips, a mechanical drafting teacher at Kennedy. “He was a very quiet, introspective young man.”

The principal at the Sylmar school--which Saul had transferred to this month--agreed.

“He was an A and B student,” said Principal Linda Calvo. “His work habits and teacher cooperation was excellent.”

The teenager’s parents said he had been accepted at several universities, including UCLA.

“He wanted to become a lawyer because there are so many injustices and he wanted to help people,” said his father, Saul De Santiago Sr.

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The shooting occurred Tuesday about 9:30 p.m. in the frontyard of a house in the 400 block of North Huntington, according to police.

The teenager was at the home to visit friends and borrow a video game, family members said.

The residents of the house refused to identify themselves, saying that they feared gang retaliation. In an interview Wednesday, the men said that on Tuesday night, a white van drove past the house a couple of times and then stopped in front of it. Two men armed with a handgun and a rifle got out, the residents said, and opened fire on Saul.

“He was screaming every time he was shot,” said one of the residents. “I tried to jump the fence. . . . I was scared [the gunman] would shoot me in the back, so I just went under the car.”

The assailants sped off south on Huntington toward Mack, who was parked about half a block away to speak to a resident of the middle-class neighborhood before starting his shift, Peavy said.

As the assailants passed, they opened fire on Mack, who took a bullet to the jaw that came out through the chin, Peavy said. Police had not determined why the men shot the officer, but there was speculation that they viewed him as a possible witness.

Even though he had been shot, Mack pursued the suspects and made a radio call that sparked a massive response from several police departments, including LAPD’s Foothill, Devonshire and North Hollywood divisions, as well as the San Fernando and Burbank departments.

The van, which had been reported stolen from North Hollywood, crashed a few minutes later near Astoria Avenue and Foothill Boulevard. Four men ran from the car, Peavy said.

The multi-agency police force set up a perimeter and arrested three suspects quickly and the fourth about two hours after the shootings, Peavy said.

Times staff writer Claire Vitucci contributed to this story.