Family Says Slain Teen Was Trying to Avoid Gangs

SANTA ANA — Roger Ochoa wanted to break free from the turbulence of crime and gang violence of his Santa Ana neighborhood. He began working for a computer repairman and wanted to move with his family to a safer neighborhood, but he could not escape his harsh surroundings.

At 10:30 p.m. Friday, at a birthday party for a friend, the 17-year-old was shot to death, four times in the back, after a heated argument with suspected gang members, his family said.

For police, it is another gang-related homicide. But for family and friends, it is a tragic end to dreams for a better life outside the grasp of inner-city gang brutality.

“The kid had a tough life. He never had a chance,” said Fred Miller, who hired Roger part time to help him repair personal computers.

“He was very unselfish, very gentle and caring,” Miller added. “But he had grown up in a mess (in Santa Ana). You got kids in gangs and kids not going to school and alcohol and drug abuse. He got caught up by it all.”

Roger’s death was part of a night of gang-related violence in which three men were also attacked in an unrelated Anaheim stabbing incident, Anaheim police Sgt. Fred Roush said.

One of the wounded men was airlifted to the Long Beach Memorial Medical Center. The others were taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange, an Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman said.

No suspects have been arrested in the knifings, Roush said, who had no information on the condition of the victims.

In the fatal Santa Ana shooting, police concluded a night of investigation Saturday morning by arresting suspected gang members Rudy Padilla, 22; Javier Padilla, 20, and Frankie Castellon, 19. The suspects were served search warrants at two neighborhood homes, Santa Ana Police Sgt. Dick Faust said.

A fourth suspect is at large, he said.

Police did not say whether Roger was also a gang member. Police did not release his name, but relatives, his employer and a former teacher spoke emotionally about the youth’s slaying.

Roger had just returned home Friday night from his job when friends came over and invited him to the birthday party on the 1200 block of East 3rd Street, several blocks from his house, according to his mother.

“He didn’t really want to go, but they persuaded him to go,” his mother, Cristina Ochoa, said in Spanish. “He told me, ‘I’ll be back soon.’ And I told him, ‘Don’t be late.’ Those were our last words.”

Soon after Roger arrived at the party, he got into a fight with another person, police said.

A group left quickly but returned minutes later and opened fire on Roger, police said.

The youth was rushed to Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, where he was declared dead at 11:12 p.m., police said.

Friends and family gathered at the Ochoa house Saturday to console the mother and his four sisters. His father is in Mexico, family members said.

They described Roger as good-natured, humorous youth who had a streak of altruism. “He would see some poor people, and he would come home without his shirt because he gave it to them,” said his sister, Veronica, 15.

“He would give his tennies away” sometimes too, she said.

Mourners decried the gang violence that engulfed and killed Roger. “The senseless murder is never going to stop until we the people say something and take our streets back,” said Yolanda Galdamez, his aunt.

“I’m so tired of gangs. You can’t even sit out on your porch because you’re afraid of getting shot. . . . The gangs control the streets.”

Family members said they do not think that Roger was ever a gang member.

He first ran afoul of the law with drug problems in his early teens, said Richard Rohr, his teacher at Joplin Youth Center in Trabuco Canyon, a detention facility for youths.

Roger was last in Joplin for a few months on a violation of probation codes and was released in December after taking a computer and math class, Rohr said.

His experience at Joplin “was bittersweet,” Rohr said, “because he wanted to do well, but he was torn between what he wanted to do and peer pressure. He had a tremendous aptitude for computers. . . . He was a role model.”

Upon being released from Joplin, he landed a part-time job in Rancho Santa Margarita by using his training from class, said Miller, his employer.

“He was definitely a smart boy. He really knew the Apple computer,” Miller said.

After working with Roger for four months, Miller gave the youth a key to his house and let him sleep over frequently.

“He was like a part of the family,” he said. “It’s just hard for a kid like him to get out of what he was involved in. I would tell him, ‘One of these days, you’re going to get killed.’ He would just shrug it off and say, ‘I’m careful. I know what I’m doing.’ ”