Update, Jan. 18, 12:31 p.m.: Garden Grove Police announced the identity of the armed-robbery suspect shot to death after a brief chase Sunday.
He was Wilfredo Ayala, 19, of Santa Ana. According to police reports, “Ayala had previous arrests for possession of H&S 11359 possession of marijuana for sale and PC 12021 (a), felon in possession of a firearm and PC 12021 (d)(1), prohibition of possessing a firearm. He was currently on formal probation.”
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Original Post, Jan. 17, 9:52 a.m.: Santa Ana Police shot and killed a young man around 4 p.m. Sunday.
About an hour later, Garden Grove Police did the same to another man.
The Orange County district attorney's office is investigating both incidents, as is routine with officer-involved shootings.
Santa Ana gang detectives went to the home of 18-year-old Martin Ruiz in the 1100 block of South Shelton Street because of an alleged
probation violation involving weapons. That led to a foot chase with Ruiz.
According to the police account, Ruiz opened a gate that allowed a pit bull to attack pursuing officers, but the dog was shot and killed by cops. The chase continued through homes before Ruiz was corned in a neighbor's living room, an altercation ensued, and he was shot and killed in the process.
Police say a knife was found next to Ruiz. No officers were injured. Ruiz's family members, who watched the events unfold with horror, have told various media outlets they do not believe the dog or the suspect had to be downed with bullets.
The official time of the Garden Grove call is 5:08 p.m., which is when officers were dispatched to a report of people with handguns robbing someone in a strip-mall parking lot near Harbor Boulevard and Westminster Avenue.
According to the Garden Grove Police account, cops arrived to find suspects darting off in different directions. One ran toward a gas station, but he was struck by a car, got back up, and continued to run toward the gas station and commercial area.
With officers on his ass, the suspect climbed over a 6- to 8-foot wall before shots rang out on the opposite side of the wall, resulting in his death.
Police say a firearm was found next to the unidentified suspect. No officers were injured. No family members were around to complain to the media about this incident.
Besides the DA investigation into the officer-involved shooting, Garden Grove Police is conducting its own. Anyone with useful information is asked to call the Investigations Unit at (714) 741-5800.
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.