2 Men Are Shot at O.C. Bus Stop in an Apparent Setup by Partygoers

A shooting at a Mission Viejo bus stop early Tuesday left two men injured, one critically, in what authorities said may have been a setup after an argument at a party.

The victims, both from Los Angeles, were with two other men at a Crown Valley Parkway stop about 5 a.m. when two men wearing bandannas walked around the corner and shot them before fleeing in a blue van, said Orange County sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino.

One victim, an 18-year-old, was shot in the head and remained in critical condition at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo. The other injured man, 21, was grazed in the neck and released Tuesday evening.

The names of the men were not released. A man at the Mission Viejo hospital who identified himself as the 18-year-old’s father declined to comment.

If the 18-year-old dies, it will be the first homicide this year in Mission Viejo, ranked by the FBI last year as the second-safest city in the United States.

The motive for the shooting is unclear, Amormino said, adding that the 21-year-old and the uninjured men told investigators it was not gang-related. They and other witnesses have given conflicting statements, he said, although it was clear that a loud argument at the bus stop preceded the gunfire.

It appears that the men were dropped off at the bus stop after they left a party in an unknown city and were waiting for friends to pick them up and take them home, Amormino said.

“Exactly what the motive was, I don’t know,” Amormino said. “But I seriously doubt this is a random shooting.”

Authorities are seeking two assailants, possibly still in the blue Dodge van. One is believed to be the shooter, who fired at the back of the 18-year-old’s head and the 21-year-old’s neck with a semiautomatic handgun. No further description of the suspects was available.

Sheriff’s forensic investigators examined the area Tuesday morning, bringing a dog to search for evidence in brush behind the stop. A blue windbreaker, a white T-shirt and a paperback book sat on the bench. Blood had stained the sidewalk.

The incident closed eastbound Crown Valley Parkway throughout the morning, and westbound cars slowed to watch.

A manager at the apartment complex next to the bus stop said she had spoken with the two uninjured men after a neighbor called and asked if she had heard the gunshots.

The woman, who declined to give her name, said the men told her that young women had dropped them off at the bus stop after a party so that they could get a ride back to Los Angeles.

“It seemed like those girls set them up for what happened here,” the woman said.

“The guy said he went along with it because it looked like a safe place.”