Gang-Linked Fight Ends With 1 Dead, 3 Injured

One man was killed and three people were injured late Sunday after a gang-related argument erupted into gunfire in a parking lot at Centennial Regional Park in Santa Ana, authorities said.

Santa Ana police on Monday were asking for the public’s help in finding witnesses to the shootings, which occurred just inside the Edinger Avenue entrance to the park on Fairview Avenue.

Killed in the incident was Aburto Olympo, 18, of Santa Ana, authorities said.

Santa Ana police said Olympo and a second man, Martine Ambriez, 23, of Santa Ana, who was wounded in the shooting, were driving through the park when they got into an argument with a group of male gang members shortly after 10 p.m. The gang members began shooting at Olympo’s car.

Protecting Victims

Two bystanders--30-year-old Raquel Ayala, whose address was not released, and a 12-year-old girl whose name and address were not released--were injured in the gunfire. Santa Ana police spokesman Lt. Hugh Mooney said the two were shot in the back and arms but were released after hospital treatment.

Friends drove Olympo and Ambriez to the hospital. Olympo died a short time later, police said. Ambriez was in stable condition with multiple gunshot wounds.

Police declined to reveal the hospitals where shooting victims were taken, saying it was for the victims’ protection.

Monday morning, dozens of cars drove slowly past the scene of the shootings, where one parking lane in the lot was marked with blood and with debris left behind by paramedics.

“I love the park in the daytime, but at night, the low-riders take over,” said Jerry Grader, a Huntington Beach man who was viewing the crime scene from his bicycle. “It’s simply not safe to be here with them around.”

One homeless man who had spent the night in the park said several people who heard the gunshots had assumed it was people setting off Fourth of July firecrackers early.

Mooney said that the park has become a popular place for car cruising and that gang members are known to congregate there at night.

Santa Ana Police Chief Clyde L. Cronkhite has identified gang activity as one of five major categories that concerned city residents most in a recent survey. In response, Cronkhite has set up what he has called attack teams in each of the areas--gang activity, street drugs, prostitution, vagrancy and traffic accidents.