Area Can Be a Sanctuary for Fugitives : Searches for suspect who wounded CHP officer and gunman who killed two in Garden Grove show the difficulties of manhunts.

Two shootings six days apart, an attack on a Highway Patrol officer on the shoulder of an Orange County freeway and the fatal rampage at a Garden Grove auto parts store, have two common threads: They were alarming episodes of callous violence.

And their perpetrators remain at large.

How could the shooters--sought by dozens of law enforcement agencies, scores of investigators and hundreds of citizens’ tips--stay at large?

Conventional wisdom is that crooks on the lam are typically tripped up by sophisticated technology and savvy investigators. But as the trails of the two gunmen begin to fray, it’s clear that is not always true. The cases are becoming bitter reminders of the complexity and serendipity of manhunts, which often require a lucky break in addition to solid police work.

The twin pursuits are reminders that Southern California can be a sanctuary for suspects. With its freeways and proximity to remote deserts and mountains, as well as to Mexico, the region is “one of the easiest places to lose yourself in,” said San Diego police spokesman Bill Robinson, whose agency was pulled into the manhunt after last week’s shooting of the California Highway Patrol officer.

“The proximity to the border makes it the most unique and challenging thing about that area of the country,” said Bill Sorukas, a senior inspector for the U.S. Marshals Service who has hunted fugitives for 14 years. “In Los Angeles, a person is two hours away from going to another country to seek refuge.”

Though difficult to measure, law enforcement officials estimate there are more than 500,000 fugitives in the United States at any given time.

Two of them may be eluding capture in Southern California.

On Aug. 25, the sun was still rising over San Clemente when CHP Officer Gary Burnett pulled over a speeding red pickup truck along Interstate 5. Before Burnett had time to pull his gun, the driver opened fire. One bullet ripped through Burnett’s arm. Another pounded into the body armor covering his chest. The driver fled; Burnett was able to drive himself to the hospital.

Then on Monday, a young man strolled into the Robotek automotive store in Garden Grove and, without a word, opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, killing two men and injuring four others before tucking the gun into his waistband and racing away in a gray minivan.

The two cases illustrate why manhunts can be so maddening.

The CHP shooting couldn’t have come at a worse time-- 6 a.m.

Rush hour hadn’t begun, so “at that hour of the day, you can actually move very freely on the freeways. An hour or two later, it would have been gridlock,” said Robinson of the San Diego Police Department. With an open road before him, the gunman could have made it to Mexico--where some investigators suspect he fled--in less than two hours.

There wasn’t much evidence at the scene, investigators say. The truck had no license plate, and Burnett did not get a very good look at the gunman, leaving officers with a “somewhat sketchy” description, Robinson said. There are thousands of similar trucks in Southern California.

“I think every guy with a red pickup truck in Southern California has been pulled over at least once,” said Anaheim Police Sgt. Joe Vargas, whose agency is one of dozens participating in the search. “The difficulty with this is, where do you start? And who do you start with?”

Finding suspects involves “a lot of variables,” said Tustin Police Lt. Michael Shanahan. “Sometimes it’s great police work, but more often than not, we catch a break. Good police work is 90% being in the right place at the right time, and 10% knowing what to do once you’re there. . . . Sometimes blind luck factors in. That’s just part of how it happens sometimes.”

Police defend their record, and say they usually get who they’re looking for.

Still, the two latest manhunts are not likely to end until one of the suspects’ friends gives him up. Police rely on such tips in a surprising number of cases.

In one of Southern California’s best-known manhunt tales, Mark Richard Hilbun eluded authorities for 38 hours--while killing a close friend, his mother and her dog, and trying to kill seven others. Hilbun’s 1993 rampage largely took place at the Dana Point post office where he worked, and where he had become obsessed with a co-worker.

Hilbun evaded police by switching the license plates on his truck and cutting his hair. While authorities searched, he went to a neighborhood sports bar in Huntington Beach where, dressed in a Hawaiian-print shirt, he ordered Stolichnaya vodka cocktails. Two bar patrons recognized him from television coverage and alerted authorities, who arrested him inside the bar.

Hilbun was sentenced in 1997 to nine life terms in prison.

Veteran manhunters say fugitives often make the mistake of contacting friends and relatives, or by visiting their old haunts.

“The minute you tell one person, the secret begins to fall apart,” said Vargas, the Anaheim Police sergeant. “Traditionally, loyalty to thieves and criminals is low.”

Police typically interview everyone known to the suspect. They sometimes keep a 24-hour watch at known hangouts. While a sprawling metropolitan area provides a fugitive with many places to hide, there is also the increased likelihood that someone will see the suspect and tip off police.

“It takes a very unique individual to forget his entire past, put his family aside, move on to another place and never have contact with his past again,” Sorukas said.

For now, authorities readily concede, the manhunts in Garden Grove and San Clemente will consist largely of waiting for that precious tip.

“There is no quick fix,” said CHP spokesman Bruce Lian, referring to the search for the gunman who shot the patrol officer. “He could have gone anywhere.”