Boy Shot in Head in Santa Ana

A Lynwood boy struggled for life late Sunday as police tried to figure out who would shoot an 11-year-old in the head in a quiet Santa Ana neighborhood and why.

The boy, whose name was not released because he is a minor, was walking with his 13-year-old brother and three teenage friends Saturday night when they came upon two bicycles in a driveway, police said.

“We can’t say what their intentions were,” said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Raul Luna. “But they were touching the bicycles when a neighbor from across the street came out and started yelling at them.”

Startled, the boys sprinted along the 1000 block of North Gates Street, Luna said. Moments later, at about 10:40 p.m., residents in the area heard four or five shots, he said.

“There is no indication whether the shots came from a car, someone walking on the street or from a home,” Luna said. “We just don’t know.”

He said bullet casings were recovered from a driveway on North Gates Street and that his department would perform ballistic tests today to determine the type of weapon used.

Luna said the brothers were visiting relatives in Santa Ana and may have been unfamiliar with the area.

The injured boy remained in critical condition Sunday night in the pediatric intensive-care unit at UCI Medical Center in Orange.

Residents of North Gates Street, a working-class neighborhood near Garden Grove, said Sunday that they were shocked to learn that an 11-year-old boy had been shot on their block.

“Oh, my God. I have a grandson that age,” said Lupina Ojeda, who heard the shooting while watching television with her husband, Leo.

Ojeda said she and her husband were sitting in their living room when some men began arguing loudly outside their home at the corner of North Gates Street and West Fay Circle.

“Suddenly, they stopped arguing,” she said. “Then we heard two shots and then we heard another two.”

Ojeda said she called 911 immediately.

Two doors down, Don Baker was asleep when he was startled by the gunshots outside his home. While his daughter called police, Baker crept outside to see what had happened.

“It seemed like an eternity with all the screaming and hollering,” Baker said, describing three males yelling for help near a fire hydrant where the boy lay at the corner of North Gates and West Celeste streets.

“We were just talking about this last night,” said Serena Adkins, Baker’s daughter. “We said it’s never hit this close to home, has it?”