5 Suspects Arrested in Shooting of Occupied Residence

Five suspected gang members were arrested on suspicion of shooting at an inhabited residence they may have confused as the home of a rival, authorities said Thursday.

Three of the alleged assailants were identified as Manuel Huerto Celedon, 21, of Sylmar; Jesse Isidro Alvarado, 20, of Canyon Country, and Jenette Ann Camarena, 18, of Canyon Country, said Deputy Alan Young, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

The names of two juveniles--ages 15 and 16--were not disclosed.

The shooting occurred Wednesday at about 7:45 p.m. at an apartment complex in the 27300 block of Sumac Court, authorities said.

Witnesses told investigators they saw four males get out of a tan four-door vehicle parked on Manzanita Lane and go into the Park Sierra apartment complex, Young said. A few minutes later, witnesses heard gunshots and saw the same males running back to the car and driving away.

A resident of the apartment unit shot at by the assailants told investigators she was sitting at her dining-room table with her fiance, his 4-year-old daughter, a neighbor and her two small children.

They heard gunfire and breaking glass. The woman went into a bedroom and saw several bullet holes in the window and in the wall across the room, Young said.

Deputies responding to the scene spotted the vehicle in the neighborhood and pulled over the alleged assailants, authorities said. Deputies found a .25-caliber semiautomatic pistol inside the car believed to match the .25-caliber shell casing left at the apartment, Young said.

The accused assailants--due to be arraigned today at Newhall Municipal Court--are known gang members but they had no apparent connection to the residents of the targeted apartment, Young said.

Though no one was hurt, Young said one of the children was in the room just minutes before the shooting and would have been in the line of fire.