Man Fatally Shot After Fight With Neighbor

A 31-year-old landscaper and father of three was shot and killed at a Ventura mobile home park early Sunday following a late-night argument with a neighbor, Ventura police said.

Juan Vargas, who lived in the Victorian Park mobile home park just off Victoria Avenue near the Ventura Freeway, died from multiple gunshot wounds in the emergency room at Ventura County Medical Center about 2:40 a.m. Sunday.

Later Sunday, one person was shot and killed outside of a house on the 800 block of La Canada Avenue in Oxnard. The shooting occurred about 7:45 p.m. and was apparently sparked by a domestic dispute, according to Oxnard police spokesman David Keith. Oxnard Police Cmdr. Jamie Skeeters said that investigators were questioning a possible suspect in connection with the incident. No further information on the shooting was available.

In the Ventura shooting, police are seeking Raul Cervantes Viveros, 46, for questioning in connection with the slaying of Vargas.

Vargas is survived by his wife, Racil, three children and numerous relatives.

Moments after the shooting, Viveros apparently fled in his vehicle, which was later found abandoned in the Wagon Wheel Road area of Oxnard, according to police.

No description of the vehicle or suspect was provided by investigators.

Witnesses at the Vargas home late Sunday morning said the neighbor, Viveros, was drunk and started a fistfight with Vargas just after midnight, when Vargas declined to turn down music playing from the home.

“They started fighting and I called the police, but the police never came,” said Racil Vargas, sitting in the living room of the modest trailer surrounded by family and friends.

“Ten minutes later, (Viveros) came back with the gun and shot him,” she said, rubbing tears from her eyes. “He killed my husband.”

Racil Vargas said they have lived in Victorian Park for six years and never had any problems with neighbors in the past.

Ventura police investigators did not return phone calls about the case Sunday.

A press release said officers responded to a call of a fight in progress on Arizona Drive in the mobile home park about 1:15 a.m., but that officers were unable to find a disturbance at that time.

But less than two minutes after officers left the area, the press release said, reports of shots being fired at the same location were broadcast over the 911 system. Police then found Vargas bleeding and transported him to the hospital, where he died about an hour later.

Neighbors said a series of gunshots broke the silence of the early morning in the usually quiet trailer park.

“I heard a bang-bang, then I heard a bang, bang, bang, bang, bang,” said one resident, who did not want to give her name. “There were two shots, then a pause, then four or five more. It sounded like he just emptied the clip.”

The woman, who said she had lived in the park for only three months, said she worried about violence so close to her home.

“I’m 54 years old,” she said. “I’ve lived in a lot of places, but I’ve never lived anywhere where a neighbor was killed. It’s scary.”