Police responding to a single-vehicle collision in Santa Ana late Friday night discovered the driver of the small pickup truck had been shot, and he soon died.
The 29-year-old’s name was withheld pending notification of next of kin.
The collision call came in just after 11:40 p.m. from the 1300 block of South Bristol St., according to a Santa Ana Police Department advisory.
Officers arrived to find the compact pick-up truck on the greenbelt east of the east sidewalk, where a lone Hispanic male in the vehicle was unresponsive behind the steering wheel. Orange County Fire Authority paramedics arrived and attempted life saving measures, but they pronounced the victim deceased at 11:06 p.m.
The man had apparent gunshot wounds to his upper torso, police say.
There are no suspects in custody at this time, and SAPD notes that the case may be eligible for the City of Santa Ana Homicide Reward Program. Anyone with information should call the SAPD Homicide Section at 714.245.8390. Orange County Crime Stoppers takes anonymous tips at 1-855-TIP-OCCS.
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.