Suspected Shoplifter Shot Outside Store

A 16-year-old suspected shoplifter was shot by an Oxnard store manager Thursday after the youth left the market and was confronted by store employees, police said.

The youth, identified only as an Oxnard resident, was taken by ambulance to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where authorities refused to comment on his condition at the request of his parents.

Police did not identify the boy because of his age.

Store manager Ibrahim Himideh, 33, shot the youth with a small-caliber handgun. Police said the teen-ager was holding a knife, but exactly what prompted the manager to fire is unclear.

The youth was confronted by several employees of Oxnard Ranch Market on Pleasant Valley Road after they allegedly saw him pick up merchandise and leave without paying, police said.

Himideh said in an interview that he was trying to protect his employees when he shot the youth. But he would not comment on the circumstances immediately before he fired.

“All the sudden he reaches into his pants and pulls out what seems like a gun to one of my employees,” the manager said. “So my employee started screaming, ‘It’s a gun, it’s a gun.’ So I ran outside and see this guy basically flinging this knife left and right so he can get away.”

“I seen this huge knife in his hand,” he said, “and I was under the assumption that he had maybe a gun in his other hand. . . . Obviously, someone’s life was at risk.”