Boy, Father Held in Fatal Shooting of Teen Driver

A 15-year-old Garden Grove boy and his father have been arrested in connection with a shooting this month that fatally wounded an Anaheim teenager found in an overturned car, authorities said Tuesday.

The boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was charged with murder in the shooting of Benjamin Escobar, 16. The boy’s father, Salvador Munoz Gutierrez, 50, was charged with being an accessory by helping his son escape.

“The father knew he was wanted,” said Capt. Dave Abrecht, a spokesman for the Garden Grove Police Department. “He knew what had happened and apparently arranged for his son to go to Mexico.”

The boy surrendered after long negotiations between police and family members, Abrecht said.

The shooting happened June 19 when the boy and a 17-year-old companion were walking near Blanche and Dale streets in Garden Grove, police said. Apparently a car driven by Escobar with two companions inside stopped nearby, and passenger Jose Manuel Mendez, 18, of Garden Grove got into an argument with the 15-year-old pedestrian, Abrecht said.

According to police, the boy fired a gun, first hitting Mendez and then Escobar, who drove a few hundred yards before striking a tree and overturning. Escobar died at the scene. Mendez was treated and released at a local hospital, authorities said. The second passenger, a 13-year-old runaway girl from Huntington Beach, was taken into protective custody.

Three days later, investigators located the suspect in Mexico, where he had fled with his father’s help, Abrecht said. Police are no longer seeking the 17-year-old.