2 Hospitalized After Separate Shootings

Two Ventura County men, both shot in the head in unrelated incidents in Santa Paula and Oxnard, were in critical condition at area hospitals Saturday.

In the Santa Paula shooting, a group of people standing in front of La Cita Cafe flagged down a police car shortly before 11 p.m. Friday to report that a shooting had just occurred and that the assailant was walking west from the cafe, Santa Paula police said.

Bernardo Mancilla Rendon, 30, of Santa Paula was found a short distance from the cafe with a handgun in his waistband and was arrested on suspicion of attempted homicide, police said.

The victim, Mauro Torres Garcia, 43, also of Santa Paula, was shot once in the head, police said. Garcia was taken to Santa Paula Memorial Hospital, and later transferred to Ventura County Medical Center, where he was in critical condition Saturday.

Police said the shooting was not gang related.

In the Oxnard incident, police responded to a report shortly after 2 a.m. Saturday of a gunshot victim in a parking lot near Wooley Road and C Street.

Police found Oxnard resident Moises Silva Cerna, 26, with a gunshot wound in the head.

Cerna was in critical condition Saturday at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, a nursing supervisor said.

Although a motive for the Oxnard shooting is not known, police said it did not appear to be gang related.