SANTA ANA – Shootings Thursday evening and Friday morning added to police concerns about an increase in gun violence in the city.

Police have noted a spate of shootings – about 16 – in the city since Jan. 1, many of which have been tied to gang activity, police Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. One of the shootings was fatal.

In the latest incidents, officers responded around 8:30 p.m. Thursday as two men argued and confronted each other outside a home in the 1300 block of West Third Street, a witness told police.

One of the men shot the other one several times, Bertagna said.

“The victim was struck in the upper torso and then rode away westbound on his bike,” Bertagna said, according to the witness. “The suspect then fled eastbound on (West) Third Street.”

Several 9mm pistol casings were found at the scene, but that was the only evidence officials initially spotted.

“We contacted all the hospitals, but I have heard nothing,” Bertagna said.

Around 7 a.m. Friday, more gunfire was heard in Santa Ana, this time by a woman who ended up wounded.

A 42-year-old woman was walking on the sidewalk in the 800 block of South Townsend Street when she heard gunshots and then realized she had been shot in the lower torso, Bertagna said.

Witnesses reported seeing a four-door, gray sedan fleeing the area, but a shooter was not found.

The woman was taken to a hospital with survivable injuries, Bertagna said.

The only fatal shooting in Santa Ana so far this year happened around 2 a.m. Sunday, when Phung Dinh Le, a 19-year-old Garden Grove man, was shot in the head during a car-to-car shooting in the 2800 block of West Edinger Avenue.

Police suspect the homicide was gang-related, along with most of the 2016 shootings in the city.

Two days later, two men were injured in unrelated gang shootings in Santa Ana. The first happened at 4:35 p.m., when a man was shot at a gas station near the 2600 block of West McFadden Avenue. The next occurred at 7:33 p.m., a mile away, in the 1900 block of West Myrtle Street. Both men were hospitalized with survivable injuries, police said.

The next day, two documented gang members were arrested after a 12:30 a.m. Wednesday shooting in the 300 block of South Laurel Street.

Contact the writer: 714-796-7802 or aduranty@ocregister.com