A 14-year-old boy accused of shooting and causing great bodily harm to a 16-year-old boy outside Santa Ana High School April 27 will be charged as an adult on felony attempted murder and street terrorism counts, prosecutors announced.
Held in lieu of $1 million bail, Oswaldo Sotello of Santa Ana faces up to 40 years to life in state prison if he is convicted.
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As students were leaving the high school around 3 p.m. on April 27, Sotello and the unidentified 16-year-old got into a verbal argument off school grounds. The 14-year-old is accused of pulling out a gun and firing a round into the other boy's chest before taking off. The 16-year-old was taken to a local hospital, where he was last reported in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the upper
torso.
Santa Ana Police officers arrested Sotello, a suspected gang member, on Thursday. He is charged
with one felony count of attempted murder and one felony
count of street terrorism with sentencing enhancements for the personal
discharge of a firearm causing great bodily injury and criminal street
gang activity. His continued arraignment scheduled May 25 in Santa
Ana.
Meanwhile, the investigation into the shooting continues. Anyone with information is asked to call 855.TIP.OCCS, the witness information gang
hotline at 714.245.8648 or Supervising District Attorney Investigator
Curtis McLean at 714.347.8521.
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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.