A 19-year-old man who was shot once in the head following an argument at a house party in Santa Ana on Saturday succumbed to his injuries Wednesday, and the gang members in custody in connection with the shooting have now been charged with murder.
The incident began sometime after 1:30 a.m. in the home of 43-year-old suspect Patrick Palomino in the 400
block of North Newhope Street near Fifth Street.
Santa Ana resident Michael Barragan and his friends got into an argument with Palomino and Fernando Torres, 29, also of Santa Ana, during a party, Santa Ana police detectives say.
Later, as Barragan and his friends walked to
their cars, shots rang out. Officers arrived to find Barragan
on the sidewalk, suffering from a single gunshot to the head.
He was rushed to UCI Medical Center.
Police do not know why the argument broke out, but they do believe Torres was the shooter.
Palomino's role has not been released.
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Torres and Palomino are longtime gang members, according to police.
They have been
charged with murder, gang enhancements, use of a firearm and street
terrorism.
Both have an April 2 arraignment hearing.
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.