2 arrested in July shooting at school

COSTA MESA — Police have arrested two Santa Ana residents in connection with a July shooting in a Costa Mesa elementary school parking lot, police said Thursday.

Jose Jeremias Ayala, 26, and Denise Marie Enriquez, 30, were being held on suspicion of conspiring to commit murder and attempted murder, according to the Costa Mesa Police Department.

They are suspected in the July 16 shooting of a 26-year-old man who was sitting in the driver’s seat of a car parked at Paularino Elementary School, Lt. Paul Dondero said in a statement. The arrests were made Wednesday.

While waiting to meet a woman after work, the victim was sitting in his car when he spotted a man wearing a hooded sweat shirt talking on a cellphone, according to police.

The man then turned toward the victim and opened fire, hitting him in the left arm, torso, left shoulder and neck area, police said.

The victim was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he was treated for his wounds and released.

Police have identified the woman the victim was supposed to meet as Enriquez, an ex-girlfriend of the victim with whom he still had contact, Dondero said in the statement.

Enriquez called the victim to meet, at the request of Ayala, who intended to harm the victim, Dondero said.

Enriquez asked the victim to give her and her daughter a ride from an apartment near the elementary school and later called to confirm that he had arrived, according to the police statement.

Ayala and Enriquez are being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $1 million and $500,000 bail, respectively.

lauren.williams@latimes.com

Twitter: @lawilliams30