Edward Ortega, of the 100 block of Wiggins Place, was driving a gold Ford Mustang that witnesses said fled from police following the carjacking outside the Noche Caliente bar at Pleasanton Road and Shasta Avenue.

Vicente Cerna, 20, told police he was stopped next to the bar about 1:50 a.m. when a man with a shaved head pointed a handgun at his head and demanded he get out of the Chevrolet Suburban he was driving.

Cerna told police the man pulled him out of the Suburban and they fought as Cerna tried to take the weapon, but the man pulled away and threatened to shoot Cerna, according to a police report.

The gunman, described as a man with a dark complexion in his early 20s, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing 190 pounds, then jumped in the maroon 1996 Suburban with spinning rims and tinted windows and sped east on Shasta.

Cerna said he called police. His friends were about to chase the Suburban when a gold Mustang passed by and several 9mm rounds were fired at the crowd standing in the bar parking lot, according to the report.

No one was hit in the shooting.

A nearby officer heard the shots and chased the speeding Mustang until it ran a red light at Pyron and Pleasanton, the report said.

The Mustang was struck by a Toyota Camry driven by Jason Bazan, 21, police said.

Ortega died at the scene. Taken to area hospitals were his passenger, 22-year-old Jesse Anthony Arguello III; Bazan; and Bazan's passenger Jose Luis Aguilera Jr., 22. All had non-life threatening injuries, police said. Their conditions were not available Friday.

mmoreno@express-news.net