Beach-Goers Flock Back to Shootout Site : Ventura: The large crowd seems almost oblivious to gang violence that erupted the day before at Marina Cove.

One day after gang-related gunfire ripped across the sands of a popular Ventura beach, a larger-than-normal crowd basked in the sun and seemed almost oblivious to the earlier violence.

At midday Friday, kids squealed in the surf, adults lounged under colorful umbrellas and teen-agers rode their Boogie Boards in the waves crashing against Ventura Harbor’s south jetty.

But for those who had heard about Thursday’s shootout between rival Santa Paula gang members--Ventura’s first gang-related shooting on a public beach--the idyllic scene carried an undercurrent of fear and outrage.

“The beach was always like a sanctuary, a haven to get away from the problems in the inner city,” said Ron Schenck, 45, a high school teacher from Antelope Valley. “Is there any place the middle-class, decent people can still go to get away from that?”

Others viewed the gunfire as a sign that Ventura is beginning to reflect the violence found in more urban parts of Southern California.

“Life seems to be disposable,” said Ahmet Yilmaz, a native of England who was sitting in a lawn chair near the water with his wife and 3-year-old daughter. “People just pull out a gun and kill somebody.”

Residents of Ventura for a decade, the family said they are considering moving to Colorado because of increasing violence.

“As much as we love the lifestyle here,” Yilmaz said, “we have serious doubts about bringing our little girl up here.”

Despite those concerns, the Yilmazes said they planned to stay at the beach the rest of the day and enjoy a Friday off work.

They weren’t alone.

The parking lot at Marina Cove Beach was jammed, and there were constant lines for the restrooms. On the sand, beach-goers were at close quarters, plopping towels down just a few feet from each other.

Marina Cove, also known as Mothers Beach, is favored by families for its lifeguard towers and calm waters between the harbor’s breakwaters.

“This is very crowded for a Friday in August,” said Tom Harris, a lifeguard scanning the shoreline from his tower. “Yesterday was just an aberration, horrifying.”

Indeed, police called it a miracle that no one was hurt in the hail of gunfire.

Many of the sunbathers on the beach Thursday said they didn’t realize how close they had come to being injured or killed. But others immediately recognized the crack of gunfire and yelled to their families to take cover.

“There were probably a couple of hundred people in the general vicinity,” Ventura Police Sgt. Gary McCaskill said. “People were in danger and very fortunately, nobody was struck.”

What made the incident all the more terrifying, he said, was that the shootout appeared to be unprovoked and unplanned.

“These gangs wander around armed and without provocation will open fire whenever they see rival gangs,” McCaskill said.

Police said the incident occurred shortly before 10:30 a.m. Thursday, when four Santa Paula gang members pulled into the beach parking lot to go fishing. While they were rigging their fishing poles, they spotted a trio of rival gang members standing by the jetty.

One of the gang members in the parking lot pulled out a .44-caliber revolver and fired five shots in the direction of the trio, police said.

The three youths, who had gone to the jetty to hunt for crabs, began running south toward McGrath State Beach, where they were camping with relatives. As they ran, one pulled out a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol and returned fire at the group in the parking lot, authorities said.

The foursome in the parking lot then got into their Chevy Blazer and reloaded the revolver. As they drove away, one gang member held the gun out the window and fired again.

Six of the seven were arrested immediately after the shootout. A 17-year-old who was with the group on the beach was not arrested because police said they could not prove he had returned fire at the gang members in the parking lot.

Four of the six arrested are adults. They are scheduled to be arraigned in Ventura County Municipal Court on Monday.

McCaskill said that all the suspects are believed to be members of Santa Paula gangs that have been linked to violence there, including at least one homicide. He said Ventura police plan to ask the district attorney’s office to prosecute the gangsters under the state Street Terrorism Enforcement and Protection Act, which allows for longer sentences for gang-related crimes.

Police have not assigned extra patrols to the harbor area, McCaskill said, because they do not consider it an area normally troubled by gangs.

“This is not an area where those gangs go to hang out,” he said. “This is not their territory or their turf.”

In the past, Ventura Harbor Village, an area of small shops and restaurants, has been troubled by graffiti and teen-agers partying in the large parking lot at night.

But that activity has calmed down lately, McCaskill said, and it never affected daytime beach-goers.

Richard Parsons, general manager of the Ventura Port District, which owns Harbor Village, called Thursday’s shootout “frightening” but not an indication that the beach has turned violent.

“It illustrates that things like this can happen any place,” he said.