ORANGE – A 21-year-old man on probation was charged Tuesday with fatally shooting a woman who was driving an SUV in Orange last week.
Allan Plata of Orange was charged with murder, attempted murder, shooting at a car, and possession of a gun with a prior juvenile conviction. He also faces sentencing enhancements for a fatal shooting, gang activity, attempted premeditated murder and discharge of a gun causing great bodily injury.
Plata was arrested about 5 p.m. Friday in La Habra, according to Lt. Phil McMullin of the Orange Police Department.
The woman was driving a Honda SUV southbound on Highland Street, approaching Del Mar Avenue, when a suspect fired multiple rounds into the vehicle at about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday, the Orange Police Department reported.
Plata is accused of killing 24-year-old Amber Nicole Parsons, McMullin said.
“She was driving the car in a low-income, high-density neighborhood, kind of one of our gang neighborhoods,” McMullin said.
Parsons and her passenger, another woman in her 20s, were turning around in a cul-de-sac when the shooting occurred, McMullin said.
The passenger, who lives in Orange, was not injured, McMullin said.
The two did not have any obvious reason for being in the neighborhood as the passenger lives elsewhere in the city, McMullin said.
Parsons was pronounced dead at the scene, and Plata ran from the shooting, McMullin said.
The incident took place in the same area where Victor Manuel Trinidad is accused of opening fire on police in November, McMullin said.
