Oxnard Police Arrest Suspect in Fatal Beating

As police arrested a 17-year-old suspect in the latest gang-related slaying in the city, local residents and ministers announced plans Tuesday for a peace march to stop the violence.

Organizers of the march have approached community leaders including Mayor Manuel Lopez and City Councilman Andres Herrera for support.

Herrera said Tuesday that he liked the idea after hearing from a local radio personality who is helping to organize the event, but Herrera added that he still only has a vague idea about what is planned.

“I am very much interested in what he’s doing,” Herrera said. “I would like more details of course . . . [but] it is always important though to demonstrate that we really are in fact responsible for our own community and that people here are saying enough is enough.”

The slaying late Friday night came just after ministers and residents had their first meeting to organize the peace march, said the Rev. Larry Tyler-Wayman, a Methodist minister helping to put together the Oct. 26 march.

“It’s unfortunate that it happened right while we were discussing this, but it just shows how timely this is,” he said.

Last week, the group, brought together by radio personality Jorge Gutierrez of Spanish language station KOXR-AM, gathered to discuss the proposed march.

Then, on Friday night, gang violence claimed another victim when 17-year-old Luis Gerardo Rodriguez was beaten to death after tying to break up a fight near his girlfriend’s house in the 300 block of Nevada Avenue in Oxnard.

“When that happened I think some of those involved felt we should do the march right away,” said Gutierrez, who started discussing the city’s gang violence problems on his sports talk show after a friend of his teenage daughter was killed four months ago.

Gutierrez has approached organizers from 80 soccer teams that compete in the city, and said Olympic boxer Fernando Vargas is among those who plan to attend. Gutierrez and others with the group said they have also talked to local community organizations, neighborhood councils, Police Department and school officials to get as many groups interested in the march as possible.

“The message from all this is it doesn’t matter who you are . . . it doesn’t matter if you’re white, black or brown,” Gutierrez said. “The violence has got to stop.”

And while organizers are busy planning the event, police have been investigating the latest slaying, one of 16 in the city this year and 25 countywide.

After interviews with several eyewitnesses and a search of at least one home, members of the Oxnard Street Crimes Unit on Monday arrested a 17-year-old boy suspected of killing Rodriguez, said Sgt. Cliff Troy of the department’s major crimes division.

The suspect was arrested about 9:30 p.m. after the car he was riding in was pulled over by police on the Ventura Freeway near Santa Rosa Road, Troy said.

Witnesses identified the youth as one of several assailants who beat Rodriguez, police said. A Club-type anti-car theft device was used in the beating, Troy said.

“We believe we recovered the murder weapon,” he said.

Troy said he expects more arrests in the killing.

Meanwhile, the group of concerned residents, community activists and religious leaders is planning a meeting Friday morning at All Saints Episcopal Church to discuss the peace march.

Organizers say they hope to negotiate a truce between rival gangs to ensure that the march comes off without incident, said Father Anthony Guillen, pastor at the church.

“Of course we want them there, too,” Guillen said.

Organizers said they hope the peace march will bring attention and interest to the problem of gang violence.

“But that is just the first step,” he said. “We need to bring parents and youth together and provide opportunities for these kids and take action.”

The organizers hope to have groups march from five or six different neighborhoods in the city on Oct. 26 and converge at a central location, Guillen said. Councilman Herrera said that may be logistically difficult and will at least require a number of city permits.

Times staff writer Lorenza Munoz contributed to this story.