ANAHEIM : Youth Shot in Heel During Gang Fight

A suspected teen-age gang member was shot in the heel Wednesday during a fight with another youth believed to be from a rival gang, police said.

The wounded 16-year-old, whose name was not released because of his age, was taken from the scene of the 2:55 p.m. shooting by a friend and driven to his parents’ home, police said. The victim’s mother then drove him to Anaheim Memorial Hospital, where he was reported to be in stable condition.

Police said the wounded youth had driven with a friend to a parking lot near the corner of Romneya Drive and Homer Street to confront a rival gang member.

“They had had some kind of argument, we don’t know what it was about,” Anaheim Police Lt. Ray Welch said.

Witnesses told police that the injured youth was armed with a lug-nut cross wrench when he got out the car and approached the other youth.

“At one point during the altercation, the second male pulled a handgun from his waistband and attempted to fire two rounds at the male with the wrench,” Welch said.

The weapon did not fire the first two times the trigger was pulled, and the youth with the wrench then tried to run away, Welch said.

But the youth with the gun continued pulling the trigger until several rounds were fired, one of which struck the fleeing youth.

The assailant is at large, Welch said, “but investigators have some potential good leads as to who he is.”