SANTA ANA : Man Found Shot to Death in Alley

A reputed gang member was found shot to death in an alley just before midnight Wednesday, bringing the number of gang-related homicides in the city this year to 17, police said.

The body of Alberto Acosta, 25, was discovered by police at 11:46 p.m. in the 1100 block of South Poplar Street. He had been shot several times in the upper body and in the legs, Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

Helton said that details of the crime are still sketchy and that police have no suspects.

“We don’t know what kind of confrontation took place,” Helton said. “We had a report of shots being fired, and when we got out there, there was nobody else around, just a guy lying in an alley.”

Helton said the area where Acosta was shot has been plagued with gang problems.

Investigators who questioned neighbors in the area, located west of Bristol Street, have so far turned up little.

“We’re having a real difficult time finding witnesses,” Helton said. “We have been able to confirm that (Acosta) was a member of a Santa Ana gang and had been for some time. We haven’t seen too many gang members his age being involved in these kinds of incidents.”

The shooting was the 31st homicide in the city this year and the third this month.

In 1992, a total of 21 slayings were committed in Santa Ana through the end of May. Of those killings, nine were gang-related.

A particularly violent April, during which 10 people were slain in the city, caused homicide figures to leap ahead of last year’s total by one-third. But Helton said things have leveled off since then.

“We can only believe that April happened to be one of the months that you have no explanation for,” Helton said.