Teen in Custody May Be Linked to Slaying

A 17-year-old boy who may be connected to a gunfight that left an Oxnard teenager dead has been taken into custody on a parole violation, Santa Paula authorities said Thursday.

Santa Paula police say they think the 17-year-old might have fired the .32-caliber bullet into Ruben Escobedo’s neck Wednesday after Escobedo fired a shotgun round into a group of about eight people in a driveway on Salas Street.

“The guy who got killed showed up for a gunfight and he got one--and he lost,” Cmdr. Mark Hanson said. “You can’t show up at somebody’s place looking for a gunfight and expect to get greeted with open arms.”

Seventeen-year-old Escobedo, father of a year-old daughter, was pronounced dead at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital after a single gunshot severed a major artery during the 3 a.m. shootout.

“It is still being considered self-defense [on the part of the 17-year-old shooter] because he was being fired upon,” Hanson said. “This is not to say this juvenile is not in trouble--he has just not been charged with murder at this point.”

The teenager lives at the Salas Street duplex where the shootings occurred.

Escobedo’s death is the third homicide this year in Santa Paula.

Evidence indicates there was another shooter, who fired six rounds of .25-caliber bullets toward the group of eight, officials said. He remains at large.

“It’s possible Ruben brought that other shooter with him,” Hanson said.

Police have not recovered either handgun or the shotgun and are uncertain of the motive for the fight, but Hanson said they are looking into the possibility that it was over a girl.

Manlio Escamilla, 21, who was in the driveway at the time of the cross-fire and was shot in the leg, is in custody at the Ventura County Jail for an alleged parole violation. He was on parole for a 1995 robbery in which he and four other people stole a high-powered rifle and crossbow from an Oxnard man’s home during a party.