Police Say Anger at Vandalism Led to Shooting : Oxnard: The suspect, upset about repeated attacks on his property, allegedly killed a boy, 17, riding by in a pickup truck.

For months, Angel Orona Rodriguez Sr. tolerated rocks and bottles being thrown at his Geronimo Drive house by gang members, Oxnard police and neighbors say. On Saturday, police said, his anger erupted into a fatal fury.

Rodriguez is accused of killing a 17-year-old boy in apparent retaliation for the unrelenting attacks on his home provoked by his son’s gang affiliation, police said.

Detective Sgt. Denny Phillips said Sunday that a flurry of beer bottles hurled at his house just before midnight Friday prompted Rodriguez to grab his .22-caliber rifle and fire upon a passing pickup truck that he thought was responsible.

“I honestly think he didn’t know he hit anybody, that’s the tragedy of the whole thing,” Phillips said. “He was the kind of father who stayed up waiting for his children to come home.”

Richard Louis Rodriguez Jr., unrelated to the suspect, was riding in the back of the pickup being driven by his father. He was struck twice in the chest at 12:01 a.m. Saturday and died half an hour later at St. John’s Regional Medical Center.

Conrad Tories, who was in the bed of the pickup with the victim, said he heard what sounded like three firecrackers, followed by moans from his friend.

“He said he was shot, and I thought he was just playing with me,” said Tories, 18, of Oxnard. “Then he started crying and bent over in pain. I felt the blood on his shirt when I hugged him. When he started bleeding from his nose and mouth, I knew he was shot bad.”

Police said they believe that Tories, the victim, his father Richard Rodriguez Sr. and his uncle Steven Rayas were driving through the Lemonwood neighborhood near the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Channel Islands Boulevard seeking revenge for an earlier act of vandalism outside the victim’s home in the Loma Flats neighborhood of Oxnard.

Oxnard police said Saturday’s homicide appeared to have been sparked not only by tension between rival gangs in Lemonwood and Loma Flats, but also by a broken teen-age romance between the suspect’s daughter and a Loma Flats gang member. Police said some of the vandalism may have been directed at the daughter.

According to police and witnesses, the chain of events leading to the shooting death began shortly after 11 p.m. Friday on East Birch Street, where the victim lived with his grandmother.

Richard Rodriguez Jr., a high school dropout who frequently worked as a deejay, was in the back yard when a bottle thrown over the rear fence shattered on his arm, cutting his forearm and finger, said Wilma Ruelas, his grandmother.

After throwing the bottle, his assailants smashed the windshield and broke the antenna on a 1991 white pickup truck owned by the victim’s father, Tories said.

The combined affronts led the victim and the three others to set out in the white pickup to find the assailants, who were in a red pickup truck, said Rayas.

Angel Rodriguez Sr., meanwhile, had endured numerous acts of vandalism on his home for months when the latest round occurred late Friday night, said Raul Acosta, who shares the house with the suspect.

Acosta said unknown gang members slashed four tires and broke a window on his 1976 Pontiac Ventura, an act Acosta said was directed at the suspect’s son, Angel Rodriguez Jr., a 19-year-old member of the Lemonwood Chiques.

Acosta said Angel Rodriguez Sr. became particularly upset after hearing that someone had hurled a rock at his son in the front yard while young children were playing around him.

According to police, occupants of a passing vehicle threw several beer bottles at the house next door to the suspect’s house. Police said the suspect knew upon hearing the shattering glass that the assailants had missed his house and would be coming around again.

Police said they did not know who was responsible for the vandalism at either of the houses, but their investigation was continuing.

The suspect, who is being held in Ventura County Jail on $250,000 bail, allegedly lay in wait and fired upon the pickup as it passed his house. One bullet struck the tailgate, and the other two entered the victim’s chest, one going first through his arm, Phillips said.

“The suspect said he was not aiming at anybody, and by all appearances, he wasn’t,” said Phillips. He said that the shots were fired at such close range that Angel Rodriguez Sr. could easily have killed both boys, and that there were still bullets left in the gun.

The suspect was arrested at his home around 8 a.m. Saturday and surrendered the rifle he allegedly used, Phillips said.