Bystander Deaths Rise While Gangs Get Greedier

ORANGE —  The first moments of 1991 began with a fierce gang brawl in Placentia that left Jack Cisneros, a father of five, shot dead.

Three days later, in an unrelated incident, Santa Ana gang members showered a truck with bullets, killing 17-year-old Elizabeth Miranda as she chatted with friends and family.

Both victims were innocent bystanders.

The new year promises more bloodshed and innocent victims at the hands of Orange County gang members, who left a record body count in 1990. As gangs dig deeper into other crimes and new territory in the county, law enforcement officials are scrambling to catch up with a new breed of members who are younger, more brazen and trigger-happy, said Brent Romney, head of the county’s gang prosecution unit.

“There are more and more innocent victims in gang crimes,” Romney said last week at his office in Orange County Juvenile Hall. “Anybody, from 4-year-olds to grandparents, is fair game.”

Last year, the county had a record of 28 gang-related slayings, compared to 16 in 1989. Half of the victims were innocent bystanders, Romney said.

While turf wars continue to be the primary source of crime among Orange County gangs, financial incentives have lured them into committing other offenses as well, such as drug dealing and robbery, Romney said.

“The involvement of gangs in other crimes has gone up dramatically in the last year,” Romney said. “The result is that more and more victims in these cases tend to be non-gang members.”

In 1990, 126 gang members were prosecuted for robberies, compared to only 71 in 1989, authorities said.

“Gangs in Orange County are evolving into organized crime, much like businesses,” Romney said. “While we don’t have anything like Los Angeles’ crack cocaine, we do have a concern that financial incentive is beginning to make its way into the county.”

Santa Ana investigators confirm that gang members are committing more robberies in their city. The Police Department, however, does not break down crime statistics according to those committed by gangs.

“We are aware that gangs have turned to confrontational street crimes,” Santa Ana Police Lt. Robert Helton said. “They know there are immediate payoffs.”

As gangs evolve, members are spilling into areas where residents have not regularly seen gang activity, such as Yorba Linda and Anaheim Hills.

One such area is Santa Ana’s mostly middle-income “north of 17th Street” neighborhood. Recently, gang slogans from a notorious Latino Santa Ana gang have dotted a brick wall and several real estate signs in an area flanked by Flower and Main streets. Police say that gang members want to stake out a new continuation school and several apartment complexes in the neighborhood.

Santa Ana Planning Commissioner George Hanna, who lives in the neighborhood, said the graffiti demonstrate that gangs have crossed the northern boundary of 17th Street.

“It’s been a concern in the north end that once we start getting gangs, then it would be too late to stop the problem in the city,” Hanna said. “I hope it’s not at that point.”

Helton said gang investigators are keeping an eye on the graffiti, making sure that members are not moving into the area.

Asian gangs move their crime activities to where their intended victims live. As Asian residents move out of concentrated ethnic neighborhoods to the suburbs, gangs follow with home invasions. Such was the case in two 1990 home invasions in Yorba Linda, where in one case suspected gang members pistol-whipped a woman and terrorized her family. The home invasions are terrifying attacks in which armed robbers gag and bind occupants and threaten to kill them. The robbers and victims are almost always Asian.

Westminster Police Detective Marcus Frank said that home invasions used to be conducted randomly by various gang members. But now, gangs are more organized and carry out their attacks under the direction of highly competitive leaders. They are also more violent.

“The mere show of force is not enough now,” Frank said. “They are more brutal when they threaten their victims.”

When gangs move into new territory, there are more innocent victims, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Robin Park.

“Gangs are weaving their way into every fabric of Orange County,” Park said. “We’re going to see more innocent victims in gang crimes. We already have people living in gang neighborhoods who are terrified to leave their homes and who can’t even take their dogs out for a walk because they are afraid of getting shot.”