Man, 19, Wounded in Suspected Gang-Related Shooting in El Rio

A 19-year-old man was shot and wounded Monday afternoon in front of several witnesses as he walked through a neighborhood that has become plagued by increasing gang violence.

Arturo Sotello of El Rio was shot twice in the back and once in the buttocks, and was listed in fair condition Monday night at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, hospital officials said.

Sotello was walking down Balboa Street between Collins Street and Orange Drive in El Rio when two young men in a brown Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme approached, witnesses said.

The man in the passenger seat got out of the car and confronted Sotello, police said. He pulled a .25-caliber handgun from his jacket and fired about six rounds at Sotello before fleeing in the car, police said. Witnesses said both men have shaved heads and were wearing white T-shirts and dark, baggy pants.

Authorities suspect the shooting was gang-related.

“It has all the elements of a gang drive-by,” Sheriff’s Sgt. Dan Place said.

The two men sped away, but their vehicle crashed into another car at Balboa Street and Ventura Boulevard, witnesses said. Neither driver stopped to inspect the damage.

The men abandoned their damaged car at nearby Santa Clara Catholic Chapel, and ran across the Rose Avenue overpass toward the Shopping at the Rose mall, witnesses said. At some point, the fleeing men were joined by two other companions.

Wal-Mart employee David Jimenez said he saw four young men race across the overpass, through a field and into the store’s parking lot.

“It looked really suspicious--four guys running crazy like that and looking back,” Jimenez said. The men then got into a waiting gray, four-door Mercury Marquis and sped away, Jimenez said.

Police briefly detained three suspects in the Oxnard neighborhood of La Colonia but later released them after a witness couldn’t identify them. Police continued to search El Rio and Oxnard with the aid of a helicopter.

El Rio, a small unincorporated neighborhood across the Ventura Freeway from Oxnard, has been rocked by a rise in violent gang activity in recent months.

On April 10, a 19-year-old man was shot in the back on East Stroube Street, and on March 21, two teenage boys were hit with buckshot a few blocks away from Monday’s shooting on Balboa Street.

“The number of confrontations between Oxnard and El Rio gangs seem to be increasing in the last few months,” Place said.

Residents of the once-peaceful neighborhood said they are getting fed up with all the violence.

“We’ve heard gunshots before,” said 25-year El Rio resident Tina Glass, who heard the gunfire. “I’ve found bullet casings right here in front of my house. Sometimes I’m afraid to go outside.”

Another neighbor, who was afraid to identify himself, said he was considering leaving.

“I’m moving out of here,” the 12-year resident said. “I’m real worried now. I have two daughters who walk home from school near here. What if they had gotten in the way of the shooting?”

Ralph Medina said his sister, Irma, was driving to his house on Balboa at the time of Monday’s shooting. She had stopped to pick up her children and ended up with a bullet lodged in the rear door of her Nissan Pathfinder.

“She heard a thunk and realized they were shooting,” Medina said. “She had to duck down.”

Moments later, Medina and his sister looked down the street and saw the victim on his knees crawling toward them.

“I ran and called 911 and then tried to help him until the ambulance arrived,” Medina said.