Pair Sought in Fatal Stabbing of Ventura Boy : Crime: The killing is the county’s fourth gang-related death this year. Relatives mourn the 14-year-old.

In the wake of Ventura County’s fourth gang-related fatality this year, Ventura police searched for two suspects Thursday in connection with a fight that left a 14-year-old Ventura youth dead of stab wounds to his back.

Ricardo Hernandez, 14, was pronounced dead at 9:59 p.m. Wednesday at Ventura County Medical Center. A second youth, Ojai resident Hector Hernandez, 16, was treated at the same hospital for stab wounds and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

According to police and eyewitness accounts, the stabbings occurred after a group of teen-agers that included Ricardo and Hector Hernandez, who are not related, had a run-in with another group of teen-agers at Ventura’s Grant Park.

Police identified the dead boy and his companions as members of a gang called the Ventura Avenue Gangsters. They said the other group of teen-agers, both black and white, also shouted gang slogans, but the identity of their gang affiliation was not known.

Two white males are suspects in the case, police said. They said one of them may go by the name of Midnight Watcher or Midnight Man.

As police investigators intensified the search on Thursday, Hernandez’s friends and relatives quietly mourned the Anacapa Middle School student at the Dakota Street apartment complex where the boy lived.

“I always told him, ‘Don’t go around gang banging, don’t do it, it’s going to hurt you,’ ” said Ricardo’s older brother Ruben, 19, fighting back tears. “He wouldn’t listen.”

Rosa Hernandez, Ricardo’s mother, spent most of the afternoon Thursday with family members at the hospital identifying her son’s body.

“She can’t believe Ricardo’s dead,” Ruben Hernandez said. “She doesn’t want to look at pictures. She won’t believe it until she sees his face.”

Neighbors gathered outside the house, trying to make sense of the crime as they looked after a dozen or so toddlers playing on the front lawn.

“L.A. is here, L.A. is here,” said Candy Rose, a part-time school bus driver who remembered Ricardo Hernandez as a quiet boy who sat at the back of her bus.

“You keep hearing stuff like this happening in L.A. on the news, but when a 14-year-old gets stabbed in your back yard, you can’t get over it,” she said.

“I just talked to him yesterday,” said Sarah Murillo, another neighbor. “It just seems too quick. It’s sad what families have to go through.”

As Murillo spoke, two somber-faced teen-agers who identified themselves as Avenue Gangsters walked by on their way to the Hernandez residence to pay their respects.

“I can’t believe it happened,” said Daniel Zapata, 15, one of the youths. “I was with him yesterday. We were watching television, just kickin’.”

“Ricardo was always there for you,” added Rigo Aguirre, 14. “He would always back you up in a fight. That’s the kind of friend he was.”

As they walked away, Murillo winced.

“I just hope they find the killers fast, or we are going to live in fear,” she said. “This could be the beginning of a wave of gang violence.”

In addition to police reports of the fight, a third youth who was with Ricardo and Hector during the melee, Richard Barretto, 14, of east Ventura, provided an eyewitness account of what took place.

Ricardo Hernandez, Hector Hernandez, Barretto and their girlfriends were driving up to the Grant Park Cross on Ferro Drive when they passed the suspects, Barretto said.

The suspects were driving a white mini-truck, lowered, with a six-foot whip antenna. They were accompanied by other youths riding in a blue full-size pickup truck with large wheels, and a gray Chevrolet El Camino with a whip antenna, police said.

As they passed each other, both groups shouted gang slogans, police said. Barretto said neither he nor his companions could make out the name of the gang that the others shouted back at them.

When they reached the cross, the three girls went out on a walk and the three youths returned to the other group of teen-agers “to see what their problem was,” Barretto said.

When two suspects pulled knives, the boys started running up the hill, Barretto said.

“It happened real fast. I yelled ‘Run!’ and we took off,” Barretto said.

But the older, stronger knife-wielding suspects caught up with Ricardo Hernandez and Hector Hernandez, Barretto added.

“When I reached the top of the hill I looked around and Ricardo was missing. Hector barely made it, and he was bleeding like crazy,” Barretto said. “We went down looking for Ricardo and we found his body on the side of the road.”

The fatal stabbing follows two other deadly incidents of gang violence in the county this year.

On April 7, Rolando Martinez, 20, and Javier Ramirez, 19, were killed in a random drive-by shooting at a baptism party in Saticoy. Neither victim was affiliated with a local gang, but a third youth who was injured in the shooting had gang ties.

Four teen-agers--members of gangs in El Rio, Ventura and Oxnard--were convicted of murder for their roles in the shooting.

On May 31, Jennifer Jordan, 20, was gunned down outside her Thousand Oaks home. Her two-year-old baby’s father, Gregory Figueroa, was believed to associate with gang members, court documents show.

Two members of the Houston Hoods gang in Thousand Oaks were arrested and charged with murder. Their trial is pending.

Hernandez’s wake will take place Sunday at Ted Mayr Funeral Home in Ventura. Burial is scheduled for Monday.