Man found fatally shot after 2 men enter his truck at Santa Ana gas station and drive away with him

SANTA ANA – A man was found shot to death after, police say, two men hopped into his truck while he was at a gas station early Tuesday morning, Aug. 14.

The circumstances surrounding the killing were murky.

It’s unclear if the suspects forced their way into the truck while the man was gassing up shortly before 2 a.m. at the Shell station at Edinger and Grand avenues, Santa Ana Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said, or if they were invited in.

“(The suspects) confronted him, and there was at least a verbal altercation,” Bertagna said.

The three went northbound in an alley near the gas station, with the vehicle ending up close by on Wilshire Avenue, in front of Century High School, where police found the man dead inside. Officers had been alerted to trouble by a shots-fired call.

Police don’t know yet where the man was shot.

“Does he know these individuals? Was this a carjacking …  a kidnapping? We still aren’t sure,” he said.

Tuesday was Century High School’s second day of classes for the new school year.