CMPD beefs up west-side presence after minor injured in gang-related shooting

Costa Mesa Police Department advised residents it may be increasing police presence on the city’s west side, following a possibly gang-related shooting Monday during which one unnamed minor was wounded.

CMPD spokeswoman Roxi Fyad reported the incident took place at 2:30 p.m. on the 700 block of Hamilton Street and resulted in a non-life-threatening shoulder injury.

Further information on whether the individual may have been hospitalized was not being released to the public, as the matter is still under investigation. Community members on social media referred to the shooting as a “drive by” but Fyad clarified the only vehicle involved was the one occupied by the person injured.

Although the shooting took place near Costa Mesa’s Pomona Elementary School, the campus was closed due to the summer break and was not occupied at the time, a Newport-Mesa Unified spokeswoman confirmed Thursday.

Monday’s incident is at least the third episode of gang-related violence to hit the city’s west side in recent months. A 22-year-old man was fatally stabbed June 11 outside a liquor store on the 1700 block of Placentia Avenue, while a second man, aged 19, was believed to have been assaulted by the same suspects nearby, about 1 mile away from Monday’s crime scene.

Two suspects — Israel Antonio Valencia, 25, and Christopher Mathew Pena, 18, both of Costa Mesa — were taken into custody the following day. Court records indicate Valencia pleaded not guilty to a felony murder charge.

Valencia was also charged with a special enhancement for the personal use of a deadly weapon that could add one year to any sentence he may receive. Pena currently faces no charges stemming from the incident, according to court records.

Visitors pay their respects at a memorial outside of a liquor store in the 1700 block of Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa, where a man was fatally stabbed on June 11.

(Andrew Turner)

On June 14, another male adult was reportedly injured in a shooting that occurred near a makeshift memorial erected near the Placentia Avenue liquor store where the fatal stabbing took place.

Police responded to the reported sound of gunshots and located evidence of a shooting at the scene but saw no victims or witnesses. Shortly afterward, an area hospital contacted CMPD to report a man had arrived seeking emergency medical treatment for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound.

Two suspects in that case — 19-year-old Erik Garcilazo and Elmer Suarez-Morales, 20 — were located and both charged with five counts apiece of attempted murder and assault with a semiautomatic firearm, City News Service reported in June. They both pleaded not guilty to all charges during a July 17 arraignment hearing.

A petition posted online Tuesday by neighborhood resident Derek Sabori at Change.org asks the Costa Mesa City Council to do something to stop acts of violence from terrorizing residents on the city’s west side.

“Overall, there is a need for — and we are requesting — increased oversight and attention and information during this heightened time of concern and chaos,” reads the petition, which had, by Thursday, garnered 110 signatures.

“We are pleading with [the] City Council to make this a priority. Help stop the dangerous chaos in west-side Costa Mesa and keep our community thriving.”