Gang Activity Suspected in Slaying of Girl

A popular 14-year-old high school girl was fatally shot and a pregnant friend was wounded in what Oceanside police said Tuesday might be the city’s first gang-related killing.

Officer E.J. Luarca said the victims were black and the suspects are believed to be Samoan, raising suspicion that the violence might have been sparked by gang rivalry between the two ethnic groups.

Michele Tate defied her mother’s pleas and went to Alberto’s Mexican Food in eastern Oceanside on Monday night, leaving the restaurant with several friends shortly after 9 p.m. when a car drove up and an occupant opened fire.

A bullet passed through Tate, who was pronounced dead at Tri-City Medical Center, and struck Stacey Prince, 17, who was flown by helicopter to Palomar Hospital, where she was treated and released.

Shortly before noon Tuesday, Oceanside police had arrested Talofa Finouga Jr., 19, and were searching for a second suspect, Akeli S. Kelly, 21, both of Oceanside.

“We don’t know if the shooting is gang-related or ethnically motivated,” Luarca said. If the former, “it’s the first gang-related shooting that has resulted in the death of a person” in Oceanside, he said.

Oceanside has had gangs for generations but police warned last year that gang activity had escalated with several non-fatal drive-by shootings between the Samoan Bloods and the Deep Valley Posse, which is a black gang.

Although police were guarded in their statements, the neighborhood where Michele lived in a tract of older, modest stucco homes near Camp Pendleton’s back gate has been buzzing for days about gang activity.

Michele’s mother, Mecaela Tate, comforted by friends and family, said Tuesday she had warned her friendly, outgoing daughter to stay away from Redondo Drive and North River Road, the commercial and residential area where the shooting occurred and which police say is commonly used as a gang hangout.

“I told her time and time again to stay away from there,” said Tate, who said her daughter didn’t belong to a gang but that some of her friends did.

On the day Michele died, she had telephoned her mother at work to say she was home sick from school. But while her mother, who is divorced and works two jobs, was still at work that evening, the girl left the family’s home and ended up with her friends at Alberto’s.

Tate believes that her daughter, a freshman at El Camino High School, was shot by mistake and the assailants meant to kill one of her companions.

“She was at the wrong place at the wrong time. She took the bullet,” Tate said.

“She doesn’t do anything wrong, she’s innocent,” sobbed the mother, adding that her daughter “wanted to be a lawyer. How’s she going to be a lawyer if she’s dead?”

Tate said Michele was friendly to a fault, often inviting homeless children to spend the night in their home. She was loyal to friends, some of them gang members, and seemed unaware that her association could bring her harm, said her mother.

Sources believe the bullet could have been meant for one of Michele’s companions, which included two males whom police have not identified.

Residents of Tate’s neighborhood have worried for days about increasing gang activity.

One area resident, who asked not to be identified, said there has been some gang activity in the past, but that random shots were heard last Friday and Saturday nights.

Although nobody was injured, “this was new for this end of the valley,” said the woman. “Everybody knows it’s gangs. Everybody was told by gang members and the cops to stay in at night.”

Meanwhile, Oceanside Unified School District administrators ordered extra security at El Camino High, which Michele had attended for only a month, and provided psychologists who help students having emotional problems.

“We don’t know whether it (the shooting) was random or not, but we’re treating it with a great deal of caution,” said district spokesman Dan Armstrong. “If there’s a neighborhood in turmoil, we don’t want it to spill into El Camino.”

The district placed unarmed guards at the school’s entrances to check everybody coming and leaving, prohibiting strangers and “making sure they have legitimate business on campus,” Armstrong said.

He said the mood on campus was “tense and somber,” with some students “wondering if it’s an isolated thing or a precursor to other incidents.”

Although Tate hadn’t attended the high school for long, she had already made an impression. One of her teachers, Sherilyn Gazso, said, “Michele was very sweet and extremely friendly.”

Last year, before she left Lincoln Junior High School, a yearbook indicated that Tate had been voted “most humorous” by her classmates.

Oceanside police said Tuesday that many pieces are missing in the case.

Department spokesman Luarca said authorities are not sure what kind of weapon was used, how many rounds were fired or what all the injuries were. Police suspect a handgun was used, but there were unsubstantiated reports a shotgun was the weapon. Police believe the suspects were driving a 1984 blue and white Oldsmobile Cutlass.

Police didn’t say why Finouga and Kelly are suspects or what the motive may have been in the shooting.