Teen Slain in Gang Fight at the Block

An 18-year-old Santa Ana man was fatally stabbed during a brawl in a parking lot at the Block at Orange late Saturday night, police said.

Two other people were wounded--one critically--during a confrontation between two rival groups in the lot behind the mall’s movie theater, Orange Police Sgt. Art Romo said.

Police who arrived at the mall about 11:30 p.m. Saturday found two of the stabbing victims. Paramedics tried to save the 18-year-old man, but he died at the scene, authorities said.

The other victim, an Aliso Viejo teenager, was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not considered life-threatening.

A third victim, a 26-year-old Santa Ana man who was taken to a hospital by friends before police and paramedics arrived, was in critical condition with a stab wound to the chest, police said.

All of the stabbing victims belong to the same group and have “Asian gang affiliations,” police said.

Members of the rival Asian groups had fled by the time police arrived. Possibly 10 people were involved in the fight, authorities said.

Citing safety concerns, the police did not release the names of the victims or the hospitals where they were being treated.

Authorities are reviewing tapes from the mall’s security cameras, which might have recorded the fight and the presence of witnesses, Romo said.

Before Saturday’s clash at the Orange shopping mall, Romo said, “we haven’t had any serious gang problem there at all. We’ve had just a few stabbings, but [they were] all employee-related.”

Saturday’s killing was the first in the mall’s history, Romo said.

Jim Mance, general manager of the Block at Orange, said the mall’s high-profile security force is used to dealing with an occasional car theft or vandalism. Although his security guards are “certainly prepared for something like this,” they have rarely been called upon to break up potentially deadly gang fights.

Mall merchant Allan Davidson said a few fights between two groups of Asian men and teenagers have broken out at the Block in recent days.

The rival groups have not bothered mall patrons or shopkeepers but have attacked each other on sight, said Davidson, who sells portraits and murals in the main courtyard.

“As soon as they see each other, they go at it. If these guys see each other in a Denny’s, they’re going to fight,” Davidson said. Still, “it’s probably safer here than most places.”

Davidson said he was working at the time of the stabbing. Hardly anyone inside the mall Saturday night was aware of the incident, he said.

Erika Leverenz, 15, who shops regularly at the Block at Orange, said the killing will make her think twice about bringing her 7-year-old brother to the mall.

“It just reminds you that you don’t know when it’s going to happen or where,” she said.