Vigil Held in Memory of Slain Oxnard Youth : Shooting: Friends of Gabriel Alcazar Jr., 14, say he was an innocent victim of growing racial and gang tensions. Police disagree.

Six prayer candles burned in a makeshift memorial Friday for 14-year-old Gabriel Alcazar Jr., Oxnard’s latest victim of racial hatred and gang violence.

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Friends, neighbors and well-wishers kept a solemn vigil around the cardboard shrine that has sprung from the magenta stain in the alley where Gabriel was shot the day before.

“I don’t know why they picked him,” said Erica Alva, a 16-year-old neighbor, organizing a carwash benefit to help the family pay funeral costs. “He wasn’t a gang member. He was a funny guy.”

Oxnard police continued their homicide investigation and stepped up patrols in the central Oxnard neighborhood that has been the site of escalating violence between rival African American and Latino gangs.

“We have officers working around the clock since the shooting happened,” said Assistant Chief Tom Cady. “We are going to continue that level of effort until we have someone in custody who is responsible.”

Dr. Fred Walker on Friday performed an autopsy on Gabriel and concluded that the cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds from a small-caliber handgun, said coroner’s investigator Dale Zentzis.

Huddled around the memorial about a block from Gabriel’s home, a collection of his neighbors and teen-age friends talked about the growing racial tension and recent fights that have led up to Thursday’s slaying.

“It’s pretty scary,” said Elena Arreguin, 17, who heard the shots Thursday morning while she was taking a shower. “I have a 14-year-old brother also. That could have been him.”

At one point Friday afternoon, an African American youth walked by the group congregated in the alley, flashed a gang sign and laughed, according to witnesses.

“They were here to pay their last respects and he was laughing,” Elena said. “They started chasing him. He ran.”

Although Oxnard police spokesman David Keith identified Gabriel as a known gang member Thursday, his friends insisted he was not.

“They probably think he was a gang member because of the way he dresses,” said Jaime Prado, a 14-year-old friend. “He was always with his dad. He would go and eat with us at McDonald’s and then, boom, he would go home.”

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Neighbors said that Gabriel was gunned down at short range after being chased into an alley off Hull Place near K Street shortly after 9 a.m. Thursday. They said that two young men fled the area in a dark, small sedan.

Neighborhood teen-agers said that Gabriel was unfortunate to get caught alone by longtime rivals in the area. He was walking in the area with his girlfriend before the attack, friends said.

“It’s a rival gang thing, but it’s more racial,” said one neighborhood 16-year-old.

“They wanted one of us,” said another teen-ager in baggy black pants, who declined to give his name. “He was the easy target.”

Gabriel’s best friend, 15-year-old Tommy Santiago, joined the vigil after school and placed two red hibiscus flowers on top of other blooms on the memorial.

Tommy said he was supposed to meet Gabriel Thursday morning so they could walk together to class at the Puente Program, part of Oxnard’s alternative high school for students on the verge of dropping out.

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“We’re trying to figure out why it would happen to him,” said Tommy, who has tattooed letters on his knuckles and the back of his neck. “He was a good kid,” Tommy said. “He always went to school and got good grades. He was telling everybody to stay out of trouble.”

Gabriel loved to play handball in the neighborhood and get a group of friends together to play tackle football at a nearby park.

He was nervous about living in his new neighborhood near Oxnard High School, having recently moved with his mother from a south Oxnard community. Gabriel lived in an apartment on K Street with mother Rosemary and an aunt less than a block from where he was killed.

A vigil will be held 7 p.m. Wednesday at Conrad Carroll Mortuary, 401 W. Channel Islands Blvd., in Oxnard. A private Mass will follow, said mortuary manager Ben Nichols.

Gabriel is survived by his mother, his father, Gabriel Sr. of Somis, his younger brother, Isidro, his grandparents Isidro and Maria Alcazar of Somis, and his grandmother, Virginia Zambrano of Oxnard. He also had six uncles and nine aunts in Ventura County.

The family has set up a memorial trust fund at California Federal Bank in Oxnard.