Suspect Admits Firing Gun in Beach Melee : Crime: Alejandro Garcia, 19, says he feared Santa Paula gang members were going to kill him. Three other defendants in the shootout are now free.

An attorney for the only defendant still charged in a summer shootout at a crowded Ventura beach says his client started the gunfight because he thought some Santa Paula gang members would kill him if he did not shoot first.

Deputy Public Defender Todd R. Howeth acknowledged Tuesday for the first time that 19-year-old Alejandro Garcia fired the shot that ignited the Aug. 5 shootout and sent as many as 200 sunbathers scurrying for cover.

“There’s a real issue here of why he pulled the gun,” Howeth said, speaking outside a Ventura County courtroom after Garcia’s arraignment was delayed until next Tuesday. “He shot because he was afraid that they were going to kill him.”

Three other onetime suspects in the case have gone free. Last week, prosecutors dismissed charges against a 17-year-old boy who they once believed had returned Garcia’s fire. Another juvenile was acquitted by a judge, and the same grand jury that indicted Garcia refused to charge a 20-year-old Santa Paula man arrested after the gunfire.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Kim G. Gibbons said authorities are still investigating to determine whether anyone else should face charges.

Gibbons scoffed at Garcia’s contentions that he opened fire to prevent an attack by members of a gang who had been harassing him.

“You’re not allowed to just pull out a gun and do a preemptive strike,” Gibbons said.

Garcia remains in Ventura County Jail with bail set at $100,000. He was indicted in September on a variety of felony and misdemeanor charges stemming from the shooting.

Howeth said the beach shooting was the culmination of a long feud between Garcia and members of the Santa Paula gang. The attorney said he was speaking out because he wants it known that his client is not a gang member.

But Gibbons said Garcia associates with known gang members.

“He hangs around them, so other gangs assume he is a member,” Gibbons said.

According to Howeth, the gang members first mistook Garcia to be a member of a rival gang several years ago and began targeting him for threats and violence. Since then, Garcia’s car has been shot at and his life has been threatened, Howeth said.

He said Garcia was so concerned with the attacks that he left Santa Paula about a year ago and moved in with relatives in Northern California.

Garcia returned to Santa Paula during the summer to visit his mother and do some fishing, Howeth said. Garcia was in the beach parking lot Aug. 5 to fish when he spotted the gang members and saw that they recognized him, Howeth said.

Howeth said Garcia pulled out his gun, aimed it at the ground and fired.

“He shot because he was afraid that they were going to kill him,” Howeth said. “It’s very convenient for everybody to say this was a battle between rival gang members, but my client was never in a gang.

“He didn’t want to hurt anyone,” the attorney said. “He only wanted them to know he had a gun.”

Gibbons said Garcia fired the .44-caliber pistol seven times--five times when he first spotted the gang members and two more times after he raced back to the vehicle in which he was riding.

Gibbons said someone among the gang members fired three times from a 9-millimeter semiautomatic pistol, but investigators have been unable to identify the shooter.