Church Leases Site of Shooting Spree

An unemployment office that stood vacant for six years after the bloodiest shooting spree in Ventura County history has found new life as a church.

The plain, single-story building in Carriage Square on North C Street has been empty since 1994, a few months after frustrated job seeker Alan Winterbourne opened fire inside, killing three people, wounding four more and killing a police officer after a wild car chase.

But now, after a series of deals fell through, the former state Employment Development Department office has been leased as the new home of New Life Community Church.

“What happened there was not the building’s fault,” said Renee Hatcher, an executive for building owner, Martin V. Smith and Associates. “We are looking at this as a new start. They are a good church, well-organized and run like a business.”

The church hopes to relocate within six months, after it completes city paperwork and a partial renovation.

“We want to replace the stigma on that building,” said Pastor Steve Abraham, who believes the prime location near a freeway will help the young church grow.

Abraham said the structure is a little larger than others the church’s selection committee considered.

“But when we walked through it, all 12 of us had a real peace,” he said, “a sense that this is where we are supposed to be.”

The price didn’t hurt either.

The church leased the 14,000-square-foot building for a monthly rate of 50 cents per square foot, down from the asking rate of 90 cents a foot, and far below the $1.50 a foot requested 18 months ago.

“We’ve been praying and God has been faithful to us,” Abraham said.

Hatcher said the price is competitive for the area. She said the building has been empty since the state unemployment office moved out because it is large and older than other comparable spaces.

“We have had several offers through the years, but for one reason or another we could not find a tenant,” she said, citing the building’s 1960s appearance.

The New Life church has held Sunday services in a conference room at Marriott Residence Inn in Oxnard since Abraham started it two years ago.

The new building will cost about 30% more each month, but the church will use it all the time.

“It’s really a lot of work to set up and tear down all the equipment every week,” church member John Albin said, referring to the chairs, amplifiers, speakers and drums used during services.

“We’ve grown to almost 300 [members], and it’s time for us to find a facility,” Albin said. “We have been looking for eight months now.”

The building has five classroom-size rooms, two offices, a conference room that will become the sanctuary, four restrooms and a small kitchen.

It is close to the freeway, a post office and retail outlets, which Abraham said will help increase the visibility of the church.

He said a church in Westlake Village donated desks, bookshelves and chairs. And a Camarillo elementary school has donated some child-sized chairs and tables for Sunday morning classes.

Irma Lopez, wife of Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, was seriously wounded by Winterbourne. She said the church was the best organization for the building.

“Having it be a house of God is really appropriate,” she said. “It’s something that for those of us that were there means a lot.”