Gang Rivalry Probed in Fatal Stabbing

Tension between rival groups over territory in a dangerous south Oxnard neighborhood may have led to the stabbing death of one man and the injuring of a second, police said Wednesday.

Enrique Hernandez, 20, whom police identified as a gang member, died on arrival at St. John’s Regional Medical Center following a large street fight Tuesday in the 600 block of Cuesta del Mar Drive, police said.

A second man believed to be in the same gang was also stabbed, but authorities had not found him as of Wednesday night, Oxnard Police Sgt. Lee Wilcox said.

“When we were talking to people out there, they told us a second person was stabbed in the fight” but not badly injured, Wilcox said.

According to residents, 20 to 50 men from two rival groups began fighting about 8:30 p.m. in front of the Cuesta del Mar Apartments.

Several belong to the same gang as Hernandez, but detectives were investigating whether the rival group is an established gang, Wilcox said.

The sergeant said tension between the two groups over turf may have led to the fighting--something not unfamiliar in this two-block stretch of roadway formerly known as Aleric Street.

The street was renamed in the late 1980s after a police crackdown at several low-rent apartment buildings, but crime spiraled again in 1991 when the area was classified by analysts as the city’s most violent district for reported crimes.

A resident who asked not to be identified said that starting Aug. 13, one or two carloads of young men from outside the neighborhood had begun driving around the complex, as though looking for someone.

The complex and surrounding area are considered the turf of the gang Hernandez was in, police and residents said. Members of that gang hang out in the neighborhood’s alleys, in front of a local grocery store as well as at South Winds Park.

Funeral arrangements for Hernandez were pending. Faith Connection, a countywide ecumenical group that seeks to raise awareness of gang violence, has planned a vigil from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. today at the crime scene.