Wounded Suspect’s Kin Angry

The family of an unarmed man who was shot and critically injured by Santa Ana police dismissed assertions that officers mistook the man’s flashlight for a gun.

Authorities allege that Santiago Valencia Ayala, 23, a suspected drug dealer, pointed the flashlight at officers after leading them on a wild foot chase near downtown Santa Ana on Tuesday.

However, Ayala’s family said Thursday that he was trying to flee police only because he feared being picked up for a probation violation--failing to go to a drug treatment program in Westminster--and being deported to Mexico.

They also questioned why Ayala would do anything to threaten armed police officers.

“He got scared. His reaction was to run because he didn’t want to be deported again,” his 67-year-old mother, Adelina Valencia Ayala of Santa Ana, said. “He had minor run-ins with the law, but they didn’t have to shoot him when he was unarmed.”

Ayala remained in critical condition Thursday, recovering from surgery at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana after two gunshot wounds to his chest. Ayala’s family has been spending their days at his bedside, and their nights in the kitchen of their tiny two-bedroom home praying for his recovery.

The shooting followed a brief chase that ended blocks from Ayala’s home in the 300 block of Birch Street. Police said the chase began when officers tried to stop Ayala, whom they suspected of selling drugs.

Ayala jumped fences and raced through the neighborhood before hiding inside a Camille Street home. Police said officers fired at him after he lunged at them with what appeared to be a weapon and later turned out to be a flashlight.

Residents of the home where the shooting occurred, however, said Ayala was empty-handed and trying to surrender. Santa Ana Police Lt. George Saadeh disputed those assertions, saying other witnesses confirmed that Ayala was carrying the flashlight.

Ayala’s family said he ate breakfast and left their home Tuesday morning to help neighbor Juan Martinez move appliances into his home. It was Martinez’s home where, later that day, Ayala hid from police and was shot.

In an interview Thursday, Ayala’s distraught mother gazed at pictures of her youngest child, taken during communion and graduation from his elementary school, and wondered why police took what she called unnecessary action.

“He is my baby,” she said, wiping tears away. “I am in shock. I’ve been crying so much, my eyes are hurting.”

She said she hasn’t visited him in the hospital, fearing that she’d faint to see the youngest of her nine children bedridden and hooked to a respirator. Instead, she lights candles in the kitchen and prays for his recovery.

Ayala’s family said he was trying straighten out his life, which included drugs and brushes with the law. The Ayalas emigrated from Michoacan, Mexico, in 1995.

Aside from building cabinets for a Santa Ana company, Ayala was attending Rancho Santiago Community College to get his GED and was studying English with his sister, Guadalupe Ayala, 29, at Santa Ana High School.

Family members said Ayala ran into the Martinez home because he knew that family. Ayala’s 74-year-old father, Ezequiel Ayala Lopez, who collects cans and salvage televisions and other equipment, would sell them to the Martinez family.

The young man’s sister, Maria Ayala, 33, said she was feeding her son when she heard gunshots. She rushed outside, then saw her brother on the gurney. She ran inside to call family members.

“The police are here to protect and not to shoot into a home where people are living,” his mother said. “They overreacted.”

Douglas Vining, an attorney representing the family, also said officers should not have fired into an occupied home. The family said it plans to file a claim against the city.

Police refused to disclose the names of the two officers involved in Tuesday’s shooting; Saadeh said the names will be released Monday, in part to give the officers time to recover from the traumatic event.