THOUSAND OAKS : 18-Year-Old Targeted in Drive-By Shooting

Someone in a passing car fired shots at an 18-year-old Thousand Oaks man as he stood with friends outside a house--and missed, police said Monday.

One bullet hit a parked car, but no one was injured in the Sunday night shooting, which police said may be gang-related.

It was the second drive-by shooting in a month for the city that claims the second-lowest crime rate in the United States, and it was the third time in a year someone had attacked Cary Laviada with a deadly weapon, police records show.

A bullet grazed the teen-ager’s head in April when a gunman in a car shot at the car Laviada was riding in. And several gang members attacked him in his girlfriend’s parked convertible Sept. 29, stabbing him several times with broken bottles and a screwdriver.

Police have not arrested anyone in the attacks.

Laviada could not be reached for comment.

His father said the youth left home in Thousand Oaks about six months ago because he did not want the attacks on him to jeopardize his younger siblings.

“Somebody sure doesn’t like that boy,” said the man, who asked not to be identified by name.

Of the gang members who may have attacked his son, he said, “Me and my neighbors . . . we want them out of here. Not just arrested, not just whatever. I want them completely out of our community.”

Cary Laviada has been trying to find work and finish his general equivalency diploma, but has had trouble with Thousand Oaks gang members ever since he attended Conejo Valley Continuation School last year, his father said.