Extra Patrols Vowed After Shooting : Violence: Santa Ana High to receive more scrutiny after wild row near school, death.

SANTA ANA — Police Chief Paul M. Walters said on Thursday that he will provide extra patrols at Santa Ana High School in the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting that ended in the death of a 16-year-old youth about a block from the school.

The request for more police was made by Principal Lewis Bratcher, after a wild confrontation before 3 p.m. between two groups of youths broke out near the school on Wednesday, the first day of school this fall.

“We had already planned to add extra patrols to prevent any further incidents. We had all the high schools and junior high schools covered with traffic officers, gang investigators and regular patrols,” Walters said.

Police will continue the high visibility campaign by putting officers in uniforms and marked cars, Walters said.

The youth, whom police declined to identify for fear of gang retaliation toward his family, was not a Santa Ana High School student, police said. Walters said the youth had been involved in a gang shootout.

“That’s what it comes down to, and we’re trying to protect them and not have any other incident grow out of this one,” Walters said.

The patrol officer, whose name was also withheld, fired two shots at the youth and struck him in the torso when he allegedly aimed a gun at the officer. The youth underwent surgery and died later at Western Medical Center-Santa Ana, Police Lt. Robert Helton said.

It was the third shooting incident that has occurred near Santa Ana High School. Mauro Meza, 31, was shot to death in April when he and a group of friends and relatives were leaving the school after a game of outdoor basketball.

Three of Meza’s relatives were wounded during the attack.

Last fall, a Santa Ana High School teacher was caught in the cross-fire of a gun battle at the end of the school day. She was not hit, but the school district won city approval to close off a street that runs alongside the campus and to intensify police patrols as students leave for their homes.

On Wednesday, Bratcher said he had asked his police resource officer to bring in extra patrols the first day back to school “to show students and the community we’re taking things seriously.”

Bratcher, who is spending a tumultuous first week as the new principal, was an assistant principal at Saddleback High and beforethat, was a Santa Ana High assistant principal.

“I was familiar with the first day and what kind of activities to expect,” Bratcher said.

So far, the mood of the campus has been indifference, he said, primarily because the confrontation did not begin at school but a block or two north of the 2,500-student campus.

“This wasn’t even campus-related. From what we understand and what police have told us, (the confrontation) began north of 1st Street,” Bratcher said.

Police said the incident began when two groups on opposite sides of 1st Street at Flower Avenue--near the school’s tennis courts--began taunting each other.

Police do know whether one group then fired on another, or what precipitated the shooting, but about a dozen shots rang out near the intersection.

Two cars slammed into each other during the commotion. As more officers arrived, one of the patrol officers saw one youth in the parking lot of a 7-Eleven store and ordered him to stop running, Helton said.

The youth had a gun in his hand and turned on the officer, and the officer fired the fatal shot at him, Helton said. A small-caliber automatic handgun, apparently belonging to the youth, was found lying in the parking lot.