Man Shot to Death in Colonia Home

OXNARD —  An Oxnard man was fatally shot in the face Thursday afternoon during a struggle at a Colonia home shared by a group of farm workers.

Lauro Duarte Gonzales, 30, died from gunshot wounds to his face and a hand. He was found fully clothed in a bedroom of a home at 329 Cooper Road, which is adjacent to a police storefront.

Neighbors said the residence is the scene of regular drug use and parties. Authorities are investigating whether the shooting was drug related, said Oxnard Police Sgt. Lee Wilcox.

“This is a complete whodunit. There is no reason why he was there,” Wilcox said.

Police were searching for Gonzales’ 1994 Mercury Cougar, which they believe was stolen after the killing. The green, two-door vehicle has the license plate number 3HUE067.

Wilcox said at least five shots were fired and that bullet casings were recovered from the scene. Police are still searching for the weapon, he said.

No officers were at the Colonia police storefront at the time of the killing, Wilcox said.

“I heard all this noise and it sounded like hammering or something. I kept wondering if someone was getting shot,” said Becky Garcia, 17, who lives with her family in a house next to the storefront. She said there was loud partying to mariachi music every week at the home.

Gonzales was found after police received a call at 2:05 p.m. from a woman who had discovered his body. The woman, who told police that she knew the victim, had received an anonymous telephone call telling her to go to the house.

“She just saw that [Gonzales] had been hurt and she called us to go check on him,” Wilcox said. “She knows him but has no explanation as to why he was there.”

The woman, whom police declined to identify, was let into the home by an unidentified young Latino man who police say is not a resident of the home. The woman, who is not considered a suspect, then left the home and called police from a telephone several blocks away.

Police are searching for the unidentified man for questioning.

Also interviewed near the scene was the landlord of the property, who told police the home had been rented to the same man for the past 20 years. Police interviewed the farm workers who live in the home and they are not considered suspects.

Police Cmdr. Joseph Munoz said officers found signs of a struggle in the bedroom. Munoz said Gonzales had been shot less than an hour before police were notified.

“We have lived here more than 11 years and never had anything like this happen so close,” said Maria, 21, a neighbor who would only give her first name.

“The shooting is surprising, but I don’t ask a lot of questions,” said Andre Becerra, who works at La Michoacana, a meat market directly across the street from the house where the shooting occurred.

Munoz said Colonia’s last slaying occurred Aug. 16, 1996, when Manuel Ortiz Amaro, 46, of Oxnard was shot to death outside a home in what was rumored to be a Mexican Mafia hit.