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Man Shot to Death in Oxnard Park : Crime: The victim was seated in the driver’s seat of a parked car. Police have no suspects.

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

A man was shot and killed as he sat in a car at an Oxnard park where children were playing Monday evening, authorities said.

The unidentified victim, who police said appeared to be in his 30s, was killed about 6:15 p.m. as he sat in the driver’s seat of a gold Mercury coupe in the parking lot of Durley Park in the 800 block of Hill Street.

Oxnard police said they have no suspects.

Durley Park is surrounded by well-maintained single-family houses and apartments, but neighbors and police said the park is the frequent site of gang activity and drug-dealing.

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“This area right here is an area where they do a lot of transactions of drugs,” said Tony Silerio, 54, who lives across the street from the park.

Silerio was one of dozens of neighbors who stood around the cordoned-off parking lot watching detectives search in and around the victim’s car--still containing the victim’s body--for clues in the crime.

Oxnard Police Detective Charles Dunham speculated that a high-caliber weapon might have been used because one bullet passed through the driver’s door of the car.

Some neighbors said they had seen the shooting or had heard the shots.

A 12-year-old boy said he was at football practice in the field next to the parking lot when the shooting occurred.

The boy, later questioned by detectives, said the assailant was initially in the passenger seat of the victim’s car.

“He was shooting him when he got out of the car,” the boy said.

An 18-year-old man said he was working in his garage with the door open when he heard about five shots and saw a man walk away from the gold coupe and get into a white pickup parked on G Street.

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Another man was driving the truck as it pulled away, he said.

Dunham said that account matches what police have heard from other witnesses.

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