An Exchange of Words, Then a Hail of Gunfire : Crime: A crowded party in Santa Ana ends with a late-night barrage of bullets. One man is dead and another is in critical condition.

One man was killed and another critically wounded early Sunday when a large party at a southwest Santa Ana home erupted in a barrage of gunfire between suspected gang members, police said.

“This was an out-and-out gangfest shootout,” said Sgt. Brian Collins of the Santa Ana Police Department. “As people were calling in (to police), our dispatchers could hear an extreme amount of gunshots.”

Collins described the gathering as a “humongous party . . . the back yard was filled” and another 100 people, most of them “party crashers,” were in the street when the shooting started.

“A car drove up and words were exchanged and then blam, blam, blam,” Collins said.

Hector Cabrera, 24, whose address was unknown, was found dead at 2:24 a.m. behind the wheel of a car that had left the party in the 1700 block of West Adrin Way, driven up on the sidewalk and crashed into a tree about 100 yards away on Linda Way, according to Collins.

He had been shot twice, once sideways through the chest, and was pronounced dead at the scene, Collins said.

The wounded man, Richard Linares, 21, of Santa Ana, was found lying in the street near his parked car and taken by paramedics to UCI Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition, Collins said. Collins said he had been shot twice with a 9-millimeter semiautomatic handgun. “Somebody apparently just drove up and started firing,” Collins said. “Our officers said there was a large amount of expended rounds in the street, which means there must have been a lot for them to even mention it.”

Collins said a car speeding away from the shooting with its headlights off was stopped by police. Two passengers escaped police on foot but the driver, Israel Cervantes, was caught and was being questioned by members of the city’s gang detail, Collins said. Cervantes, whose age and place of residence were not available, was charged with evading arrest and booked into Santa Ana City Jail, Collins said.

Neighbors who gathered Sunday recalled hearing an argument and then several exchanges of gunfire before a different car, the one carrying Cabrera, jumped the curb and crashed into a tree inches from a house.

No one knew what the argument was about, but one man estimated he heard 20 shots fired “back and forth.”

“They kept shooting and shooting,” said a 12-year-old neighbor, who asked not to be identified.

A group standing outside the single-family home where the party was held declined to comment.

The sidewalk and street were sprinkled with shattered glass, and dozens of yellow police markings showed a trail of blood droplets extending a block down Adrin Way.

At the end of the block, residents gathered near the spot where Cabrera’s car crashed. A stray bullet had smashed through the front window of a house near the stopped car and pierced a sofa, but no one inside was hurt.

A man who lives on the street where the battle occurred said residents are used to hearing occasional gunfire, but nothing that bad.

“We’ve heard them, but it’s never happened like last night,” Guillermo Valle said.

Residents said the neighborhood of single-family homes is generally peaceful, although a man was shot dead a block away a month ago.

“It’s calm when it wants to be calm,” Cesar Garcia said. “When it’s rowdy, it’s something like this.”