Orange Police responded to a very busy Hart Park on S. Glassell around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday to reports of a shooting. Arriving officers found a man shot in the head under the roof of the picnic area.
Paramedics from the City of Orange Fire Department pronounced the man dead at the scene.
The park was extremely busy at the time of the shooting and Police were able to talk to a number of witnesses and develop a description and direction of travel for the suspect.
A man believed to be the shooter was apprehended near the park at Olive St. and La Veta Ave. He was loaded handcuffed into an ambulance and transported to an unknown hospital. Police coordined off evidence on a lawn where he was captured.
Hundreds of people, including many children, were in the park at the time of the shooting. Children were a mere 75 feet away in the playground area at the time of the shooing, as were people playing tennis.
District 1 Council Member Arianna Barrios who’s district includes Hart Park commented, “This type of horrific violence in an active park full of resident and children, is what District 1 has been dealing with for years. While the overall homelessness number have gone down, the transient population at Hart Park and around the Plaza has gotten more pronounced, brazen, and rogue. We cannot be complacent. it’s time we look for new solutions and stronger coordination between agencies to crack down.
We will always be always be compassionate to those willing to accept help, but for those who think Orange is an easy mark, lacking enforcement…we need to disabuse them of that fallacy.”
The City of Orange has placed an initiative on the November ballot to raise the sales tax in the city by 1% to increase revenue that will be used to add more Police Officers among other things.
