Boy Dies--Latest Victim of Oxnard Gang Violence

OXNARD —  A 16-year-old died Thursday morning after being gunned down less than a block from his home--the third Oxnard resident killed in gang-related shootings in the last 15 days, police officials said.

The sudden escalation of gang violence has alarmed local residents and prompted the Oxnard Police Department to beef up street patrols in a effort to find out what has triggered the string of fatal shootings.

“We are trying to figure that out right now,” Police Cmdr. Joe Munoz said Thursday. “We are not certain what has prompted this rash of homicides.”

Detectives are studying the three incidents to determine whether there are any similarities. The crimes happened in different areas of Oxnard, but have all been described as gang-related.

“We are looking for the commonality,” Munoz said. “We can’t say for certain that it is one specific group.”

The most recent incident occurred shortly before midnight Wednesday when Pedro Madueno was shot to death during a brief argument with two men down the street from his home in the 3100 block of Paula Street, police officials said.

Madueno and a 17-year-old friend were standing outside the friend’s home talking when two men approached them on foot, family members said Thursday. “They shot him [Madueno] in the chest, and as he went down, they shot him four times in the back,” said A.J. Madueno, the boy’s uncle. “Basically, he bled to death right there.”

Madueno said an ambulance and police officers arrived about 20 minutes later. Upon arrival, police officers found Madueno lying in the street with multiple gunshot wounds to his chest and abdomen, Munoz said.

The youth was transported to St. John’s Regional Medical Center and died at 12:25 a.m. Thursday, Deputy Coroner Zelmira Issac said.

Also injured was Madueno’s friend, whose name was not released. He was shot in the foot and released from the hospital Thursday. Police said the teen-agers had some gang-related affiliations.

Madueno’s killing is the ninth homicide in Oxnard this year and the third in about two weeks, police officials said.

A 16-year-old Channel Islands High School student was shot to death on the front porch of a friend’s home on Kennedy Place in the Lemonwood neighborhood on Sept. 28. The next day, a 24-year-old Oxnard man was shot in the head on Anita Street in Oxnard’s La Colonia neighborhood. He died five days later.

Oxnard police officials said Thursday that they are reallocating their resources to investigate these crimes and to crack down on the sudden deadly upswing in gang violence. Oxnard police have identified 2,500 gang members in the city and 12 active gangs.

“We are going to put more people on the street,” Munoz said. “We are going to target known gang members or known gangs.”

The county’s most crime-plagued city for decades, Oxnard saw a 4.5% drop in crime last year. But the city continues to struggle with its gang problems.

“I don’t know what we can do about it,” said Nancy Rahn, president of the Blackstock North Neighborhood Council, which represents 1,200 residents in south Oxnard, including those on Paula Street.

“The Police Department is doing the best they can,” Rahn said. “The gangs are out and right now nobody seems to know what to do or how to curb the problem.”

Rahn said the neighborhood council is scheduled to meet in two weeks to discuss Wednesday’s shooting and the gang situation in the neighborhood. “We are going to go to City Council and see if there is anything they can do to help us.”

On Paula Street on Thursday afternoon, friends and family laid flowers on the area of asphalt where Madueno was shot dead. Two helium-filled balloons bearing the words “Thinking of You” hung listlessly on a nearby construction sign as about a dozen teen-agers crowded the sidewalk.

“It’s been devastating,” said John Madueno, another uncle of the victim, who described his nephew as an artist who was non-confrontational.

Pedro Madueno lived with his grandmother in a beige stucco house on Paula Street. Family members said the youth recently left Channel Islands High School for a home study program to escape gang pressures. They said he was not an gang member.

“He was a great person,” John Madueno said. “It was just a senseless shooting.”