Man hospitalized after shooting in Costa Mesa

BREAKING NEWS

A shooting in Costa Mesa wounded two men Thursday evening. One man was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana with two gunshot wounds. Another man was possibly grazed by a bullet, according to police, and refused treatment at the scene.

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Loren Wyrick said the shooting occurred in the 2900 block of Mendoza Drive, which is near the intersection of Baker Street and Fairview Road, a half a mile east of the scene of a deadly shooting earlier this month.

Gang investigators were at the scene, police said.

“I think it’s a safe bet it’s gang-related,” Wyrick said.

Police are searching for three or four men between 18 and 20 years old, with shaved heads and wearing white T-shirts. The men may have been in a silver car.

Details were scarce as of 9 p.m.

The shooting is the fifth in Costa Mesa this year.

On Aug. 2, Israel Maciel, 23, was shot and killed, and four other men were wounded in a drive-by shooting in an alley of the 1300 block of West Baker Street, less than a mile from where Thursday’s shooting took place.

“We’re not making any connections” with the Aug. 2 shooting, Wyrick said.

On June 10, a man was found shot to death in an alley of Center Street in Costa Mesa. A man was arrested this month in connection with that killing.

Three men and a juvenile were arrested in May in connection with the April 24 shooting death of Julio Cesar Guerrero-Elias, 20. Police said that shooting was gang-related.

And a 21-year-old man was shot in the back in February as he was running from a fight at a house party. Police suspect a Costa Mesa man was responsible for that shooting.