1 Killed, 1 Wounded in Gang Shooting

Two men driving through Centennial Regional Park looking for a friend were mistakenly shot by gang members who approached their car and opened fire, killing one of them, Santa Ana police said Monday.

Police said they do not believe that the two men who were shot, or a third uninjured man sitting in the back seat, belong to a gang. But when the unidentified assailants approached their white Suzuki Samurai just before 8 p.m. Sunday, they demanded that the occupants disclose their gang membership.

When they responded that they were not members of a gang, one of the assailants opened fire with a handgun at close range, according to Maureen Thomas, a Police Department spokeswoman.

Francisco Ulloa, 22, of Santa Ana was shot in the head and chest. The driver, whose name was withheld by police, was shot in the arm.

The victims immediately drove Ulloa to a local hospital where he later died.

On Sept. 16, in another fatal gang attack in Orange County, a 4-year-old boy and a youth were shot to death in neighboring Garden Grove in what was believed to have been a gang retaliation. Law enforcement officials have said there are about a dozen fatal assaults in Orange County each year attributed to gangs.

Thomas said there were “quite a few” people in the park at the time of the shooting, but none claimed to have been a witness. Thomas said police did not have a suspect or a description of the gunmen and are asking anybody with knowledge of the incident to contact investigators Ron Reid or Phil Lozano at (714) 647-5168.