3 Youths Arrested After Probe Into Shooting

An exhaustive monthlong investigation into the drive-by shooting of a pregnant Newbury Park woman led to the arrest of three teen-agers Wednesday, police said.

One of the teen-agers was arrested at Conejo Valley High School and two others were picked up at homes in Oxnard and Thousand Oaks, Ventura County sheriff’s detectives said.

The ages of the suspects were not released and they were not identified because they are minors.

Sheriff’s officials credited the arrests to an “unrelenting investigation” that included a 115-officer gang sweep through the Conejo Valley in late October.

The investigation of the Oct. 18 drive-by shooting, which wounded the 34-year-old woman in the thigh, was part of a “zero tolerance” approach to gang violence, according to a statement by Sheriff Larry Carpenter.

Investigators said the three youths arrested were associated with a gang and had fired into the woman’s house under the mistaken belief that the Fallbrook Avenue residence was home to a rival gang member.

Oxnard police arrested the first juvenile early Wednesday while serving a search warrant at his home.

Later in the morning, sheriff’s detectives searched the Thousand Oaks homes of the other two suspects. None of the searches turned up weapons, police said.

The teen-agers were booked into Juvenile Hall on suspicion of shooting at an inhabited building, a felony in California, police said.