Channel Islands High School 11th-Grader Is Fatally Shot

An unknown gunman shot and killed a Channel Islands High School 11th-grader Thursday afternoon on the front porch of a home in the quiet middle-class Lemonwood area, police said.

Friends identified the boy as Martin Banuelos, but police would not confirm his identity by Thursday night.

“Somebody got mad at him and shot him--we don’t know why,” said Sgt. Cliff Troy of the Oxnard Police Department’s major crimes unit.

The victim, who lived in the neighborhood, was shot once in the chest with a handgun and died later at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, Troy said.

Police questioned and released four suspects Thursday evening.

Investigators have a sketchy description of the suspected gunman: young male--possibly Asian--with short hair, and wearing dark clothing. Officials said they don’t know whether the teen-ager’s slaying was gang-related.

“We were about to play some football and a car passes by and that’s when we heard the shots,” said 14-year-old Franklin Martinez, one of several boys at the home where the shooting occurred, on a cul-de-sac in the 1800 block of Kennedy Place.

Martinez said he was inside the home at the time and didn’t see what happened, but he heard “six or seven” shots. He was among about 15 people police questioned Thursday night. One witness told police that the suspect was on foot.

The racially diverse neighborhood is usually quiet, Troy said.

“It’s probably only the second or third call I’ve been on down here in my career,” said the veteran policeman.