Clues scarce in shooting

Police boosted patrols in a Costa Mesa neighborhood the night after a drive-by shooting left one man dead and four others injured.

Israel Maciel, 23, died after he and four others were shot in an alley of the 1300 block of West Baker Street at 8:19 p.m. Wednesday.

The four other victims were recovering in the hospital in “stable condition” Thursday, police said.

Police told reporters it’s possible the crime is gang-related, but City Councilwoman Katrina Foley and Assistant City Manager Thomas Hatch said officers indicated the attack probably isn’t connected to gangs.

“People can say all they want, is or isn’t [gang-related], but the truth is we don’t know if it is or isn’t,” Costa Mesa Interim Police Chief Steve Staveley said.

Witnesses saw a white man in his 20s, with a shaved head, a mustache and a goatee leave the scene in a silver or metallic blue, four-door Chevrolet Impala. The shots were reportedly fired from inside the Impala but no one saw the gun, police said.

Police would not release information about the weapon, saying it was part of an ongoing investigation, Costa Mesa Sgt. Bob Ciszek said.

Miguel Barcenas, whose brother Ivan Barcenas was wounded and survived the shooting, said he heard about nine shots fired that night.

“I grew up here and I’ve never heard anything like this before,” Barcenas said. “And there’s no reason; that’s the sad part.”

His brother was “hanging out outside” when the gunfire broke out, Barcenas said.

“It’s sick. You can tell the car was not from around here,” Barcenas said of the gunman’s car.

The neighborhood near West Baker Street and Warren Lane has not been a trouble spot for police until now, Ciszek said.

Wednesday’s shooting death marks the fourth homicide this year in Costa Mesa. In 2005, statistics show there were three homicides.

Costa Mesa city officials said Thursday the shooting concerns them, but City Council members didn’t agree on how to address it.

“When you have job centers, soup kitchens and a high concentration of downscale rental units, it drives the city down,” Mayor Allan Mansoor said. “I favor a multi-faceted approach including stronger gang enforcement and overlay zone revitalization, and I also think a social worker holding the hand of a hardened gang member has not worked in other cities.”

But Councilwoman Katrina Foley said this type of crime is what police should focus on.

“I think the number of shootings in this city this year is unprecedented and we need to make crime prevention — gang or otherwise — a top priority,” Foley said. “We need our cops working on real crime instead of stopping kids from playing soccer in the park and preventing people from using shopping carts.”

At the shooting scene Thursday morning, yellow crime scene tape was draped across children’s toys in the grass courtyard where most of the attack took place. A picture of Maciel with the words “murdered at 23” was taped to a nearby tree. Candles were placed in the alley where Maciel died.

Employees at Jack’s Surfboards said Maciel had worked in the company’s Huntington Beach warehouse for more than a year.

“It’s a shame,” said Mike Abdelmuti, manager of Jack’s Surfboards on Balboa Peninsula, as tears welled up when he learned of Maciel’s death.

Police said Maciel lived near the shooting scene. Police identified the other victims as Carlos Gutierrez, 25, of Huntington Beach; Edgar Eduardo Perez, 18, of Costa Mesa; Ivan Barcenas, 18, of Costa Mesa; and a 17-year-old boy from Costa Mesa.

Miguel Barcenas, said his brother, Ivan Barcenas, remained hospitalized Thursday at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana. Miguel Barcenas said that his brother is going to be OK and that his family is grateful he’s alive.

“You hear of people getting shot because they had problems or for drugs, but it’s not even like that,” Barcenas said. “They didn’t do nothing to nobody.

VOICES IN THE COMMUNITY

The Daily Pilot asked Costa Mesa community leaders, “What’s your reaction to the shooting?”

“It shows we still have work to do, but it takes time to remove the welcome matÂ….

“When you have job centers, soup kitchens and a high concentration of downscale rental units, it drives the city down, and I favor a multi-faceted approach to include stronger gang enforcement and overlay-zone revitalization, and I also think a social worker holding the hand of a hardened gang member has not worked in other cities.”

— Allan Mansoor, Costa Mesa mayor

“My reaction is that it’s terrible, and I think it’s very sad that this is happening in our community, and I have asked the police to make this kind of crime prevention their top priorityÂ….

“I think the number of shootings in this city this year is unprecedented and we need to make crime prevention — gang or otherwise — a top priority. We need our cops working on real crime instead of stopping kids from playing soccer in the park and preventing people from using shopping carts.”

— Katrina Foley, Costa Mesa city councilwoman

“A drive-by shooting is very rare.”

— Dave Snowden, former Costa Mesa chief of police and now Beverly Hills Police chief

“I think the neighborhoods that I’ve observed in Costa Mesa are very family-friendly neighborhoods, so any time any kind of incident like this would be a surpriseÂ….

“It’s something that doesn’t happen very often.”

— Thomas Hatch, Costa Mesa assistant city manager