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8/31/2016 Print Article:Santa Ma police react to spate of gang-related shootings with a probation sweep ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER Santa Ana police react to spate of gang-related shootings with a probation sweep By ALYSSA DURANTY 2016-01-12 18:46:43 SANTA ANA—Hours after police swarmed the city Tuesday to conduct probation checks as a direct action to a recent spate of gang-related °bit I shootings, a man in his 20s lay wounded on West 10th Street after he ' r" was shot in the upper body during a suspected gang attack. .'i ,.. r , i I Tuesday afternoon's shooting—the man is expected to survive—is only a�lr- .4' , the latest of more than 20 shootings since Jan. 1. Most of them have occurred on the west side of town. "It's been a violent start to the new year,"police Chief Carlos Rojas said. "I haven't seen this level of violence in recent times." Officials are trying to stop the violence through a number of tactics. One of them took place early Tuesday morning as Santa Ana police and probation officers fanned out around the city to run a series of compliance checks. "A surge of violent assaults since the beginning of the year prompted this operation,"police Sgt. Gil Hernandez said during an early morning briefing, which included the Tustin Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff's Department and U.S. Marshals officials. In 48-degree weather before sunrise, rows of black-and-white patrol cars headed out to areas with recent shooting activity or known gang action. A little later, Sgt. Jay Miller stood at the end of a driveway, armed with a large rifle, in the 1700 block of North Poinsettia Street,while nine other officers headed around the sides and to the back door of the single-story blue home with a broken front window. Looking for a 24-year-old felon, they knocked loudly. The man in question had recently been let out of lockup early after he was convicted of evading and drug-related charges. But that search came up empty: The probationer was not there and no illegal items were found inside the dwelling. In all, 25 probationers were checked Tuesday, each a registered gang member with a history of firearms, Hernandez said. Later, Miller and Cpl. Gonzalo Garcia—veteran officers with more than two decades of Santa Ana police experience—pulled up to the second of five houses for their team to inspect in the 1100 block of North Spurgeon Street. A man with a shaved head, on probation for felony evading and possession of a stolen vehicle, sat on the couch of the second-story apartment he shares with his family while a line of officers made their way into the unit. Checking kitchen cabinets, bedrooms, and even looking in lidded candles on the entertainment stand, the authorities looked for drugs, paraphernalia or any signs of recent gang activity—including certain colored items or objects with graffiti. http:/Mrww.ocregister.com/commoNprinter/view.php?db=ocregister&id=699616 1/2 REFERENCE #7