Shooting Suspect Held After Standoff

A 21-year-old Oxnard mechanic was arrested early Wednesday after police said he fired birdshot pellets at two people and then barricaded himself inside his Oxnard apartment for more than five hours.

Francisco Moreno Martinez was booked into Ventura County Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

He is being held in lieu of $20,000 bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Friday.

Police said the two victims, whom authorities did not identify, suffered only minor injuries.

Oxnard police said the two were playing soccer in a vacant garage in the 500 block of Pacific Avenue about 11:20 p.m. when a gunman fired several shots through the structure’s walls.

Several pellets struck the two victims, causing minor injuries, police said.

After the shooting, police said, Martinez, who lived next to the vacant garage, barricaded himself in his apartment.

Police said he refused to come out for several hours, but was finally persuaded by SWAT negotiators to surrender after a standoff of more than five hours.

Authorities searched the apartment and found a shotgun with several live rounds along with evidence that the pellets had been fired from the apartment into the garage, police said.

No one was injured when authorities took Martinez into custody about 5 a.m. Wednesday, police said.

Police said the victims told authorities that they did not know why shots were fired.