Stabbing of Boy, 13, Seen as Probable Reprisal

A 13-year-old boy was stabbed in probable retaliation for the bludgeoning death of a 15-year-old less than 24 hours earlier, Oxnard police said Tuesday, acknowledging their frustration in quelling a stubborn streak of violence.

Anthony Roseby was stabbed about 10 times in the back, possibly with a screwdriver and a knife at 8 p.m. Monday on a sidewalk in front of Haydock Intermediate School on Hill Street in south Oxnard, police said.

The boy, believed to be the youngest victim of Oxnard’s gang-related violence in recent memory, was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where he was listed in fair condition, authorities said.

“It’s a sad state of the times,” Sgt. Cliff Troy said. “To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a younger victim of an assault like this.”

Barely two blocks away, Gabriel Gomez Torres was beaten to death with a blunt object. His body was found early Monday in the side yard of a house on Hill Street. Police are still unsure who killed Torres, but suspect the death, like the stabbing, was gang-related.

“In all likelihood, the stabbing was a gang-related retaliation for the homicide, particularly given the location and the timing of it,” Police Department spokesman David Keith said.

Gabriel’s death was the third this year in a rash of suspected gang-related assaults that now number more than a dozen.

“We’ve had a very rough four months,” Keith said. “These incidents tend to be cyclical, but I can’t remember a cycle in recent years as bad as this one. The kids involved seem to keep getting younger.”

On Tuesday, police officials met with the Oxnard City Council to discuss adding more police to the force in an effort to stem the violence. Among the items in their wish list were more than $1 million for 11 new officers, six of whom would be used to establish a permanent gang task force.

But community activist Sunny Atkinson, who is hoping to start a mural project for at-risk teens, said more is needed than law enforcement.

“Everybody keeps saying the police need to make more arrests, but nobody is saying what we should do with these kids before they get into trouble and are arrested,” Atkinson said.

“We need to divert kids from gangs and let them know they can have a positive life versus one filled with more and more violence.”

Keith agreed that the Police Department is only part of the solution.

“If people think we’re going to solve the gang problem, they are mistaken,” Keith said. “We have a part to play, but so do parents, the community and the rest of the criminal justice system.”

Police said Anthony Roseby was walking home alone from his girlfriend’s house when he was ambushed by seven young men near the school, which has been closed for about two years.

“Seven on one--that’s usually the way gangs act,” Troy said.

Police said they have no suspects and few descriptions of the attack, partly because the young victim has not been cooperative.