Young man shot to death on New Year's Day in Lake Forest

LAKE FOREST, Calif. - In a quiet Lake Forest neighborhood where kids often play, Orange County Sheriff’s deputies say someone shot and killed a man.

It happened about one hour into the New Year. Detectives say young adults were having a party in the back of the 2300 of Village Drive, near 2nd Street, when someone shot a man in his 20's. Officials are looking into whether the homicide is gang-related.

“It’s very scary to think that what we thought we were hearing was a firework going off and what was really happening was someone was dying so close by,” says neighbor Madison Woolworth. “That’s really frightening.”

A person at the party called 911 but when first responders arrived, the man was not breathing.

Investigators spent most of New Year’s Day on Village Drive, collecting evidence, searching for surveillance and interviewing neighbors.

Investigators believe they know who the young man is but they are not releasing his name until the coroner performs an autopsy in a few days.

Detectives do not have anyone in custody at this point.