Police Seek Gunman Who Shot Boy, 12

A 12-year-old boy shot in the face while riding in a car was released from the hospital Wednesday, as Oxnard police continued searching for his assailant.

A bullet grazed the face of Ruben Luna of Oxnard late Tuesday, piercing his cheek and exiting below his ear.

The gunman was believed to be on foot when he fired toward the car near 5th and Ventura streets in Oxnard, police said.

“Was the shot fired at the car? Was the gun actually pointed at the kid’s face?” asked Tom Chronister, an Oxnard police spokesman. “We don’t have the answers to these questions.”

After the shooting, Ruben was driven to the apartment of a teenage girl who lived nearby in the Hawaiian Villa Apartments on the 5200 block of Wooley Street.

The girl’s mother called the Oxnard police, who sent Ruben by ambulance to St. John’s Regional Medical Center. He was treated and released Wednesday morning, police said.

Police said Ruben, his mother and passengers in the car have provided little information.

Police are unclear how many others were in the car with the victim and have so far been denied access to the vehicle, Chronister said.

Shootings are now commonplace in Oxnard, lamented Chronister. Solving them, he said, will “require cooperation from victims and witnesses.”