16-Year-Old Critical After Gang Shooting

A 16-year-old Oxnard boy was listed in critical condition in Ventura County Medical Center’s intensive care unit Thursday after being shot twice at about 3 a.m. on a south Oxnard street.

The boy was struck in the shoulder and the neck, according to police. The shooting in the 200 block of Campbell Way near the Southwinds apartments was gang-related, said Oxnard Police Det. Jeff Shelton.

“Apparently [the victim and a friend] yelled at a guy driving past, saying he almost hit them,” Shelton said. “The guy backed up, got out and started shooting.”

Residents said they heard either the shooter or the victim yell, “This is a Southside thing” before a barrage of up to seven shots was fired.

One 18-year-old resident, who declined to be named for fear of retribution, said he was on the phone when a bullet whizzed through his window.

“I hit the ground,” he said. “I thought maybe someone was shooting at my house.”

The gunman chased the victim and another man--who escaped injury--about half a block and kept firing, according to residents in the area.

The youth was shot as he peered out from a hiding place behind a car, residents said.

“He didn’t go down, though,” said the 18-year-old resident. “He was running around screaming for someone to help him. Then I heard the other guy get in his car and peel out.”

A spokeswoman for the Ventura County Medical Center said that Ventura police officers were called to the hospital after employees complained that the victim’s friends were intimidating them.