Neighbors Again in Grip of Violence

The children who live on Cuesta del Mar Drive talk of seeing bullet holes in windows, hearing constant gunfire and feeling afraid to venture outside their small, cramped apartments after dark for fear of being killed.

Wednesday night, two more people were added to the south Oxnard street’s long list of crime victims: an innocent couple caught in the cross-fire of a gang shootout.

Manuel Martinez Contreras, 33, remains in critical condition in the intensive care unit at St. John’s Regional Medical Center after being shot in the face about 6:20 p.m. as he was unloading his car in the alley behind an austere gray apartment complex at 514 S. Cuesta del Mar Drive.

His wife, Frances Mandriguez Ayala, who was walking nearby, turned in the direction of the noise and was also struck by the bullet from a small-caliber handgun. A 14-year-old youth is in custody in connection with the shooting.

Thursday afternoon and evening, area residents spoke of a constant crime problem that seems to mock the police storefront that sits on Hueneme Road, just yards away from Wednesday’s shootings. In 1993, three men were stabbed or shot to death in three separate instances.

“There’s a lot of violence on this street, a lot of robberies,” said Maria Martinez, 18. “For some beer, they’ll beat you,”

Martinez, who has known Contreras since they both lived in Michoacan, Mexico, said the farm worker and his family had lived in the United States three years.

The family had been living in cramped quarters with another family down the street. Martinez said the shootings occurred just as Contreras was able to afford a better apartment for his wife, three children and two nephews.

“We were coming back from the store when a nephew of his told us about it,” Martinez said. She said the nephews, who had been looking forward to the move, were in shock.

Marabel Villalba, 17, who lives with her parents in the apartment complex where Contreras was shot, said she is always hearing gunshots. To cope with the violence, she said, “I listen to music.”

City redevelopment officials have poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into cleaning up the Cuesta del Mar area, including funding the Southwinds Store Front police substation, which opened in August, 1993.

While decrying Wednesday’s shooting, Oxnard police spokesman David Keith said Thursday the storefront has made an impact on crime.

Keith said overall crime--including rape, robbery, burglary and car theft--dropped 45% in the year after the storefront’s opening, and there’s been no noticeable increase since.

Keith said drugs and prostitution, not gangs, have been the greatest source of Cuesta del Mar’s troubles over the years. He said the street has been a trouble spot for the 11 years he has been with the department.

In the late 1980s, police turned full force on the neighborhood, spending $100,000 on foot patrols and painting and cleaning the area. For a while, prostitutes and drug dealers left. But as police activity diminished, the violence returned.

Though a sign out front says the storefront station is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., police stagger the hours to accommodate residents and “confuse the bad guys,” Keith said.

Keith said two officers are assigned to the station. In addition, three or four additional officers are on patrol in the vicinity at any given time.

One of the patrol officers heard shots Wednesday night and found the two victims in an alley cater-corner to the back door of the storefront station. Contreras was immediately transported to St. John’s. Ayala suffered a minor flesh wound to her thigh and did not need hospitalization.

In 1993, three fatalities occurred within months of each other in the same block as Wednesday’s incident. In November, 1993, a 23-year-old man was fatally shot in his apartment. That October, a bystander was fatally stabbed during a family street brawl involving dozens of people.

And in April, 1993, a fruit picker was shot to death behind an apartment complex.

Times staff writer Miguel Bustillo contributed to this story.