Two men were murdered within three days and three miles of one another in Santa Ana, according to police.
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The first incident was discovered by cops after dispatchers sent out a call at 8:42 p.m. Sunday about shots fired in the area of Center and Edinger streets and a man was soon found lying on a sidewalk near 1400 S. Center. Suffering from multiple gunshot wounds to his body, 24-year-old Edgar Antonio Ojeda of Santa Ana was pronounced dead at the scene by Orange County Fire Authority medics.
Early in the homicide investigation, detectives have determined the shooting was gang related and that the killers possibly left the area on foot, according to a Santa Ana Police statement.
Police have not yet said whether a fatal stabbing in the 1200 block of South Hickory in Santa Ana early this morning was also believed to be gang related.
Officers were sent there around 2:30 a.m. after family members called to say a man had been found stabbed in front of his house.
Marcos Bahena, 38, suffered a single stab wound to the torso and was unresponsive. Medics began emergency treatment and eventually took him to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where he underwent surgery and had been listed in critical condition. But he later died from his injuries and what had been an attempted murder investigation turned into a murder probe.
The police statement on Sunday's shooting indicates monetary rewards are offered for information leading to the arrest of gang homicide or felony gang assault suspects.
Call homicide detectives at 714.245.8390 if you have info on either murder. Anonymous tips can be left with Orange County Crime Stoppers at 1.855.TIP.OCCS.
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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.