A Bloody Night in Santa Ana: 4 Killed, 2 Hurt

Desiderio Monje was a good-looking 17-year-old who was starting to turn his life around. His employer thought so highly of the stocky teen-ager, hired just a month ago, that the supervisor had him training co-workers on the night shift.

Sunday night, Monje, father of a four-month-old girl, died of multiple gunshot wounds outside a friend’s house in the 900 block of West Highland Street in Santa Ana.

Monje was one of four men shot to death in apparently unrelated incidents during what police said was the bloodiest nine-hour period they could recall. A woman was wounded in one of the shootings and a fifth man was reported stabbed during a robbery attempt Sunday night.

Two of the slayings and a knife attack occurred within one three-block area of central Santa Ana.

“No one in the department has ever heard of so many shootings in such a time period,” police spokeswoman Maureen Thomas said Monday. “Nearly every investigator was called out.”

Thomas said that the incidents were apparently unrelated and that investigators believe there is no gang involvement in any of the slayings.

The four killings bring to 15 the number of Santa Ana homicides since the beginning of the year, according to police statistics. Last year at this time, there were 19 homicides. In all, 34 people were murdered in Santa Ana last year, the highest figure for any city in Orange County.

No one has been arrested in the latest shooting deaths, which started at 6:30 p.m. Sunday and ended at 3:30 a.m. Monday, Thomas said.

A barroom brawl at the 616 Club on East 4th Street was believed to have led to the first shooting, Thomas said.

According to police, an unidentified gunman was arguing with a woman and another man, identified as Ruben Guzman Melendez, 29, of North Hollywood, when the bartender tried to break up the dispute. Melendez then began struggling with the suspect, who had pulled a gun.

The suspect shot the bartender, identified as Christina Llamas, 46, of Santa Ana in the leg and stomach, police said. As Melendez fled out the door, the suspect fired twice, missing him. The suspect ran outside, fired several more shots, and escaped. Melendez collapsed on the sidewalk with multiple gunshot wounds to the chest.

Melendez was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, where he died at 2:20 a.m. Monday, a hospital spokeswoman said. Llamas was listed in fair condition Monday at the same hospital.

Two hours later and a couple of miles away, Desiderio Monje got into an argument at a party, according to family members. The young man, who dropped out of school at 15 and became a father at 17, had been in and out of trouble, according to his sister, Gloria Monje.

He had had “a lot of problems,” Monje said, declining to elaborate. “But now all he wanted was to change his life around.” The youth lived at home with his parents, a sister, two brothers, his wife, Christina, and their daughter, Monica, she said.

Jim Tyner, vice president of production at 3 Days Blind in Irvine, where Monje started working a month ago, described him as “a bright kid” who worked hard. “It’s a real shame,” Tyner said. “He had taken off well here. He was doing a good job turning his life around.”

Gloria Monje said police told her that her brother was stabbed at the party and was walking to a nearby friend’s house for help when he was shot. Police spokeswoman Thomas said she had no details on what occurred before the shooting, and she could not confirm whether Monje had also been stabbed.

Police officers, answering a 9:49 p.m. report of shots fired, found Monje lying on the ground in front of the West Highland Street house with multiple gunshots. Paramedics declared Monje dead at the scene.

Investigators have still not identified a man shot once in the chest at 10:40 p.m. Sunday in an alley behind Family Medical Center at in the 2200 block of West First Street. He carried no identification, police said.

The man, who died an hour later at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, had been seen staggering out from the alley before collapsing on the sidewalk, police said. Witnesses said just one shot was fired. Police are looking for a dark-colored, full-sized pickup truck seen leaving the area immediately after the shooting.

The latest shooting occurred at about 3:30 a.m. Monday. Witnesses told police they saw Bill Jiminez Gonzalez, 23, running to his house in the 1900 block of West Second Street, where he collapsed at the rear door. He was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he later died of a gunshot wound to his left side, police said.

Investigators believe he was shot at a location “somewhere other than his residence” but have no motive or suspect, Thomas said.

A fifth man, identified as Anthony Salas, 27, of Santa Ana, was listed in good condition Monday with stab wounds to the forehead and stomach.

Salas told police that a man confronted him in the parking lot of Dino’s Burgers in the 2200 block of West First Street and demanded money. Without provocation, the man suddenly stabbed him, then ran away, Salas told police.

Police officials had no immediate explanation for the sudden rash of shooting deaths on a hot Sunday when temperatures, reached 95 degrees in the city. But Thomas said, “during the summer, when it’s hotter, we experience more homicides.”