Saddened and frightened

Martin Rodriguez questioned whether he should have got his stepson out of bed Wednesday night when a friend came to get him.

Five minutes after his stepson, Israel Maciel, left the house, he heard gunshots and ran outside. By the time he got to where Maciel was lying on the ground, he was dead.

“In reality, you never think this could happen to you,” Rodriguez said.

Scores of neighbors visited Israel’s parents, Rodriguez and Agustina Mendoza, Thursday night to extend their condolences and to remember Israel.

His parents said Maciel’s main passion was cars.

The 23-year-old’s fascination with cars began as a young boy when he got his first Hot Wheels, Mendoza said.

Maciel attended car shows with friends when he could, and he dreamed of one day owning vintage cars from the ‘60s.

Rodriguez, who raised Israel since he was a young boy, even encouraged him to study to be a mechanic.

Maciel’s life was cut short Wednesday when he and four others were shot in an alley behind his apartment complex in the 1300 block of West Baker Street.

The four other victims were recuperating Thursday from wounds not considered life-threatening, Costa Mesa police officials said.

Mendoza said her faith was helping her through the pain.

“God loaned him to me for 23 years, and I am grateful for that,” Mendoza said.

The mother of three boys, Israel; Michael, 15; and Chris, 10; said she did not wish her son’s killer any harm.

“I will leave that to divine justice,” she said.

Since the shooting, the apartment community is no longer a peaceful place, Maria Torres said.

Torres usually lets her 3-year-old granddaughter, Raquel, play in a courtyard in front of her apartment.

But on Thursday afternoon, she and most of her neighbors kept their doors locked and their children inside.

The drive-by shooting has residents in shock and worried for their safety.

“In the 21 years I have lived here, nothing this bad has ever happened,” Torres said.

“This has always been a tranquil place,” Martin Rodriguez said.

Costa Mesa police said they are investigating the shooting as possibly a gang-related crime.

Torres and other neighbors who know the victims said the young men are not involved with gangs.

“Like many young people, they would hang out in the alley to talk about cars and other things,” Torres said. “They were not known to get into trouble.”

Maciel, who was known by his friends as “Isra,” was well-liked, she said.

Her son, Isaac Torres, 21, was a close friend of Maciel. Before Maciel was shot Wednesday, both had plans to play a game of basketball that night at Costa Mesa High School.

“He was a nice young man who everybody liked, and now he’s gone,” Maria Torres said.

Maciel loved his two-door black Honda, said Veronica Franco, who lives next door to Maciel’s family.

“His car was his life,” said Franco, a 12-year tenant.

“He constantly washed and fixed his car. He would ask my husband, ‘How can I make it run faster?’ ”

Standing outside her apartment holding her 9-month-old son, Edwin, Rossy Gutierrez talked to neighbors she had never before spoken to. Their conversation was somber.

Aside from a couple of groups of women with children in tow talking in the alley about the killing, the property was deserted.

Some said they were having dinner or watching TV when they heard the shots. Torres was watching an old Mexican movie.

A neighbor who did not give her name said that within the last year, she has noticed more graffiti on the alley walls. She said this worries her.

A small section of a wall in the alley has been painted over with white paint.

Yung Wee, who lives across from where Maciel died, was not at home during the shooting. When he did get home, he was met with yellow police tape, and police officers. He and his family moved into the apartment a month ago.

“I feel unsafe now. I can’t move, so I hope this doesn’t happen again,” Wee said as he walked out the door with his 9-year-old son late Thursday morning.

After Wee left his apartment, a young man and two young women knelt in front of a memorial.

A picture of Maciel with “R.I.P. Israel Maciel 01-22-1983/08-02-2006” was taped to a small tree above a soccer ball that appeared to be splattered with blood.