Vigil Held for Youth Stabbed to Death

Church leaders and neighborhood children joined family members of a slain teenager for a vigil Wednesday in front of Rose Avenue Elementary School.

“We just hope we can bring strength and comfort to the family, to the neighborhood and to the community,” said the Rev. Larry Tyler-Wayman of North Oxnard United Methodist Church.

The 4:30 p.m. vigil for 17-year-old Genaro Jimenez was sponsored by Faith Connection, a consortium of churches and civic organizations.

Genaro, a junior at Frontier Continuation High School, was stabbed once in the chest Monday at the corner of Driskill Street and Ferrara Way. He had been riding his bicycle in the La Colonia neighborhood about 4:30 p.m. when two cars pulled up alongside him and men jumped out of each vehicle and began to fight with him.

After the stabbing, Genaro ran to his aunt’s house nearby on Gaucho Way. He was taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead shortly after 5 p.m.

Police have no suspects in the case and are not sure whether the homicide, Oxnard’s second of the year, was gang-related.