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8/31/2016 Print Article:50 days,55 shootings:Gangs blamed for Santa Ana's most violent week ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER 50 days, 55 shootings: Gangs blamed for Santa Ana's most violent week By LOUIS CASIANO JR., JESSICA KWONG, ALMA FAUSTO and JENNA CHANDLER 2016-02-10 22 11:32 . • SANTA ANA-Three people died and two others, including a police x• . • • • . officer, were wounded in a rash of shootings across the city this week- r underscoring what the police chief on Friday called a surge in brazen � r gang-related crimes. 1.1 • - ter.--- a 1 t t Santa Santa Ana shootings Ana Conn el,ureY .: S R: t-,ti l'n:ilc N SANTA ANA NWROMININIPPORaa.•._ l.Ist St. Thursday: Iwo .I Tuesday: Wednesday:Gang suspected burglars shot I ;t•sl d':;r• member,police exchange ano killed by police fire;one officer injure-1 Thursday:Man checks into hospital with f.tFai,den Are. 0.: gunshot wound n ttir,dinger Ave. S IAFF GRAPHIC Santa Ana police Chief Carlos Rojas said it was the worst week in a year already rocked by the"busiest" January for his department since 2011. The number of shootings reached 55 on Thursday since Jan. 1. "We're seeing more gang activity now, and I think a lot of that has to do with gang members being released into the community and more of a soft-on-crime approach," Rojas said. The chief cited the early release of offenders under Proposition 47 as a contributing factor to the violence. The initiative, passed in 2014, reclassified some nonviolent felonies, including those for drug and theft crimes, to misdemeanors,which can lead to earlier releases from jail. Rojas, however, said he did not know precisely how many people arrested in connection with this year's shootings had been released early under Prop. 47. The spate of gunfire this week unfolded over three days starting Tuesday with a drive-by shooting outside a home near two elementary schools. Police officers were involved in two of the shootings that followed, one each on Wednesday and Thursday. The department has released few details on the fourth shooting, also on Thursday, of a man who walked into a hospital with a gunshot wound. Rojas said Friday that the department's 13-member gang unit has"sufficient" manpower to go up against the 100 documented gangs in the city and their estimated 4,500 members. But the department, with 305 officers, remains understaffed, the continuing fallout of a major budget crisis in the htlp:/www.ocregister.com/common/printer/view.php?db=ocregister&id=705000 1/3 REFERENCE #5