Simi Valley Man Shot Near Friend’s Home

Less than a week after Simi Valley recorded its first homicide of the year, a 30-year-old man was shot to death in front of his friend’s home on the city’s west end, police said Saturday.

Angel Luevano of Simi Valley was shot once in the neck by one of three men in a tan or brown sport utility vehicle, police said. Luevano’s brother was standing near him when he was shot but was not injured, police said.

The shooting occurred about 6:15 p.m. Friday after Luevano and his brother left their friend’s home in the 900 block of Ashland Avenue and walked to the middle of the street to talk to the men, who had just pulled up.

“Following a brief conversation, a passenger within the vehicle fired a handgun at the victim, striking him in the neck,” said Simi Valley Police Lt. Andy McCluskey. Authorities don’t believe the victim and his brother knew the men.

As the vehicle sped off, Luevano staggered back toward his friend’s house, where he collapsed on the driveway and died. Police were searching for the vehicle Saturday and asking anyone with information on the case to call authorities at 583-6950.

The motive remained unclear but detectives were investigating the possibility that the shooting was gang-related. Luevano was not in a gang, nor is his brother, but authorities said one or both of them could have indirect connections to gang members.

Police released sketches of the three suspects Saturday night. They are described as a Latino man in his late 20s to early 30s, 5 feet 8, 180 pounds and wearing wire-rimmed glasses; a white man, 18 to 20, about 6 feet 1 and thinly built; and a Latino man of about 18, 5 feet 8 and 140 pounds with dark hair, a thin mustache and a goatee.

Residents along Ashland Avenue said Saturday afternoon that they had not heard the gunshot Friday night and weren’t familiar with the victim or his friend. Across the street from where Luevano collapsed is an apartment complex where children regularly gather out front to play.

At the home of Luevano’s friend Saturday afternoon, rags and a cleaning solution used to remove blood sat on the driveway near two Hondas. A green religious candle was burning on the front stairs.

A couple who live a few houses away said the white home with red trim was a rental and that arguments occasionally could be heard coming from the property, but there was nothing that drew the attention of police.

Luevano was the second homicide victim in Simi Valley in less than a week. The city normally ranks as one of the safest communities in the nation.

“It’s odd because these don’t happen here very often,” Police Lt. Neal Rein said.

On Nov. 29, truck driver John Louis Smutko, 41, shot and killed his 33-year-old wife, Virginia, before turning the gun on himself in a murder-suicide at the couple’s Simi Valley home, authorities said. The motive remains unclear.