2 Killed, 6 Wounded as Gang Fires on Family : 30-Year Turf War Blamed in Drive-By Shooting Termed One of Worst in Orange County History

A group of Orange County gang members, riding in a pickup truck and armed with automatic assault rifles, opened fire on a Garden Grove family leaving in several cars for the movies, killing a 17-year-old rival and a 4-year-old boy while wounding six others, police said Sunday.

The attackers, who had ventured onto turf controlled by a gang of bitter enemies, systematically shot at a dozen people at dusk Saturday outside a home in one of the bloodiest gang attacks in Orange County history, police said. The victims were preparing to see the movie “Lethal Weapon II.”

Killed were Miguel Lorenzo Navarro, 17, a warehouse clerk, and Frank Fernandez Jr., 4, whose 23-year-old mother, Irene, 2-year-old brother, Christopher, and 18-year-old aunt, Inez Fernandez, were among those wounded.

Irene Fernandez and her surviving son were in satisfactory condition Sunday night--the mother at Garden Grove Medical Center and her son at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital and Medical Center.

Also wounded in the Garden Grove attack were family friends Richard Rendon and Anthony Carmona, both 26, and Jennie Hernandez, 21, all of Santa Ana. Inez Fernandez, Carmona and Hernandez were treated for minor injuries and released. Rendon was in critical condition with leg wounds at the Fountain Valley hospital.

Police detectives and gang specialists from Santa Ana and Garden Grove were working together in the investigation. They believe members of a Santa Ana-based gang, known as 5th Street, carried out the attack, but they had no suspects in custody Sunday night.

Such drive-by shootings are relatively rare in Orange County, where gangs are growing but thus far have not resorted to the kind of violence associated with the large gangs of South-Central Los Angeles, where children increasingly have become victims of shootings.

But Saturday night along the 13800 block of La Bonita Avenue, less than a block from Santa Ana city limits in a working class neighborhood of second- and third-generation Mexican-Americans, a 30-year-old feud between two gangs was played out against a backdrop of what police say has been increasing activity and unrest among Santa Ana-area gangs.

‘You Never Forget’

Residents have spotted gang members cruising the street in recent months but said there had been nothing to foreshadow the violent outburst Saturday.

“I’ll be surprised if anyone sleeps on this street for a long time,” said Ruth Macias, a La Bonita resident since the 1940s who lives three doors from where the shooting began. “You never forget the popping of the guns. Never.”

Police said Navarro was the primary target because he was a member of the 17th Street gang, which was blamed by the rival 5th Street gang for a recent shooting.

The dark-colored pickup truck turned onto the 13800 block of La Bonita Avenue, across from a Pentecostal church, as members of the Fernandez family, several relatives and friends talked and laughed in front of a tiny stucco house. The late-model pickup rolled slowly by with the windows down and the occupants’ guns blazing, witnesses said.

The sounds of gunfire were quickly replaced by screams and cries for help as the street and sidewalk were littered with bodies.

“Approximately 20 rounds were fired by the attackers who obviously had no concern about who their gunfire would harm,” Garden Grove Police Sgt. Dan Lyons said.

Neighbors who had gathered outside to chat or share a beer on the muggy night scattered as the bullets riddled several homes and cars along a 50-yard stretch of La Bonita Avenue.

One man was under his car, working on his transmission, when the gunfire erupted.

“I just clutched my wrench and started praying,” said Rodolfo Zepeda. “I just hugged the ground.”

Navarro, known as Smokey to his gang brothers, was sitting in the back seat of a black Nissan sedan parked on the street, police and witnesses said. When the shooting started, he lunged for the front seat, throwing his body over a terrified Inez Fernandez.

‘Never Had a Chance’

“If he hadn’t shielded me, I would have been dead,” said Fernandez, who was slightly injured when her neck was grazed by an errant bullet. “The truck was less than 20 feet away. Mike never had a chance.”

Fernandez’s 4-year-old nephew, Frank Jr., was shot several times as he stood in the back of another car parked in the family’s driveway.

Frank Sr. had just taken his family to his mother’s La Bonita Avenue house after an outing at a nearby park. They had gone there to meet the others, who were grabbing coats and sweaters for the regular Saturday night outing at a drive-in.

Fernandez’s wife was driving, and had left the engine running in the gray sedan, believing they would be stopped no more than a minute or two. Irene Fernandez, in an interview from the hospital, said she was about to back the car out, her three children in the back seat, when the bullets started flying.

“It sounded like something big and fast,” said Frank Fernandez, who described himself as a former gang member. “Everybody (outside the car) was yelling, ‘Get down! Get down!’ I tried to put everybody down, but my little boy was standing up in the back and he got shot through the chest.

“Everybody was crying,” he recalled. “My sister opened the back door and said, ‘Frankie’s shot. . . .’ I took my son in the car and drove to the hospital. I wasn’t gonna wait for no ambulance. My first priority was my son.”

The assault, police said, was carried out by members of the 5th Street gang, decades-old rival of the 17th Street gang, in retaliation for a shooting several weeks ago.

Youths who identified themselves as members of the 17th Street gang denied any involvement in the earlier incident, and said Saturday night’s shooting was unwarranted.

‘There Are Rules’

Chris Lovato, a 17th Street gang member, said he was on the phone talking with a friend at the Fernandez house when he heard someone yell through the receiver, “I’ve been hit! I’ve been hit!” He ran two blocks to the shooting scene to find his best friend, Navarro, bleeding profusely.

“There are rules, and one of them is you don’t shoot at women and children,” Lovato said.

The hows and whys mattered little to Navarro’s mother, Micki Camacho, who wept softly Sunday while holding a picture of her son, “Mikey.”

“I tried and tried to get him to quit the gang,” she said. “But he wouldn’t listen. He said it was too late.”

Navarro, his mother recounted, had been a gang member since he was 13. In 1986, the handsome, dark-haired teen-ager had been shot in the stomach as he stood outside his mother’s house in another apparent gang incident. He was not seriously wounded, and a week later, she said, he began a 2 1/2-year sentence in a California Youth Authority facility for possession of a concealed weapon.

“In some ways, I felt better he was there than on the streets,” Camacho said outside her Santa Ana home Sunday. “On the streets, I worried all the time. I used to spend night after night searching for him. I told him: ‘This only leads to one thing, death.’ ”

Three months ago, Navarro was freed and returned to live with his mother and younger brother and sister. Camacho said Navarro constantly warned his 5-year-old brother not to get involved with gangs. “It’s bad business. No good,” she overheard him say.

Navarro had even shown signs of mending his ways and “going straight,” Camacho said. He had just begun a new job as a warehouse clerk and purchased his first car. Saturday night, Navarro said he would be home by 8 p.m., the curfew imposed by his mother. Camacho had gone to the video store to rent some movies that she and her son could watch when he returned.

He was killed about 7:40 p.m.

“It just rips families apart,” she said as her 6-year-old daughter Esmeralda hugged her waist. “When will it stop?”

Times staff writer Mark Landsbaum contributed to this report.

THE AFTERMATH

An ex-gang member worries over his wounded son after a turf war shatters a neighborhood. Part II, Pages 1 and 5.

Gunfire on La Bonita Avenue A pickup truck carrying several people suspected of belonging to the 5th Street gang in Santa Ana drove into a Garden Grove neighborhood Saturday evening and opened fire on several members of the Fernandez family and their friends. Police believe the target of the assault was a man who reportedly belonged to the rival 17th Street gang of Garden Grove. Attackers in pickup truck turn on to La Bonita Avenue Miguel Navarro, 17, killed, Inez Fernande, 18, wounded, while seated inside car Richard Rendon, 26, Anthony Carmona, 26 wounded Jennie Hernandez, 21, wounded while seated in car Frank Fernandez Jr., 4, killed, Irene Fernandez, 23, Christopher Fernandez, 2, wounded while seated in car