Santa Ana : Wild Holiday Gunfire Quieted, Chief Reports

A public education program that was begun last April and is aimed at stopping the rampant gunfire that has made it risky to go outside on some holidays in some neighborhoods has been successful, acting Police Chief Eugene B. Hansen said.

Two major holidays--Cinco de Mayo and the Fourth of July--marked in the past by dozens of incidents of revelers firing guns into the air, often causing property damage and sometimes serious injury, were relatively quiet this year, Hansen wrote in a report to be presented to the City Council next week.

“The reported incidents of illegal gunfire have dropped dramatically,” Hansen reported. “More dramatic was the decrease in damage reported with only one incident . . . being reported during that period.”