Van Nuys Gang Blamed for 2 Shootings

Members of a Van Nuys gang were being blamed Monday for the second shooting in one weekend here.

On Friday night, two carloads of El Salvadoran gang members from Van Nuys raked the Conejo Creek condominium complex with gunfire, police said, killing 19-year-old Edgar Cruz and wounding Andres Morales, 18.

Then on Sunday, gunshots rang out again in the parking lot of a Del Taco restaurant next to the condominium complex. Authorities said a man shot at four others who were on their way to a memorial service for Cruz. No one in Sunday’s shooting was hurt.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies arrested 10 men--all believed to be members of the Van Nuys gang--in connection with the shootings.

Arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and murder in Friday’s incident were: Jose Torres, 29; Carlos Molina, 24; Adan Gonzalez, 24; Mabrisio Rodrigues, 26; Francisco Alberto Rodriguez, 28; Roberto Guerra, 20; and Jesus Miranda, 21.

Arrested in connection with Sunday’s shooting were Javier Garcia, 25; Marcos Garcia, 22; and Wilberto Bonilla, 25.

Authorities say the recent shootings are clearly gang related, a feud pitting the Van Nuys gang against gang members from Thousand Oaks.

Investigators say a man with ties to the Salvadoran gang recently moved into the complex and has had problems with local residents and gang members.

Though there are few details on what sparked the feud, authorities say it centers on cultural rivalries between the Salvadoran man and his Mexican neighbors.

In recent weeks, fights escalated between the two sides, prompting the Salvadoran to call on his friends in Van Nuys for backup, police said.

“These are out-of-towners brought in to ensure the safety of one of their buddies,” Sheriff Bob Brooks said.

To restore order to the community, Brooks has assigned as many as to eight extra deputies to patrol the complex each night for at least a week. Sheriff’s officials also have organized a town hall meeting for Wednesday night so that residents can voice their concerns.

“The fact that we’re able to make arrests in both of these cases,” Brooks said, “should send out a pretty good message.”

There is even talk of returning a deputy to a neighborhood center in the condominium complex. The officer had been stationed at the center for six months, ending in January.

In this Newbury Park neighborhood, bordered by tall trees and tidy lawns, residents are shaken by the resurgence of violence.

They say their neighborhood, a horseshoe-shaped complex of 540 units, has had its share of problems through the years. But they say it’s never been this bad.

“It’s getting worse all the time,” said two-year resident Antonio Cervantes, an unemployed landscaper who says he would move away tomorrow if he had the means. “It’s very scary. You never know who could be hurt next.”

Nowhere does that sense of doom hit harder than the second-story unit rented by Edgar Cruz’s aunt, Olivia Alamilla.

Red-eyed and grieving, the 27-year-old Mexican immigrant said her nephew moved in with her in February and was working at a nearby electronics factory to earn money to send to his family in Mexico.

She said he had taken to sporting a shaved head and wearing the baggy clothing often associated with gang members. But she said he was not a gang member. He was a hard worker, she said, a man simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.

“He wasn’t a bad boy--he didn’t drink and he didn’t smoke,” she said. “I don’t know why this had to happen.”

On Monday morning, Alamilla sat in her living room making plans with Cruz’s uncle, Pedro Caballero Cruz, to return to Hidalgo, Mexico, to bury their nephew’s body.

Pedro Cruz said there have been increasing tensions in the Conejo Creek complex between Mexican immigrants and those from Central America.

He said his nephew was at the scene of a fight between members of those two groups more than a week ago, but didn’t have anything directly to do with the incident.

Then last Friday, about 8:30 p.m., as neighbors stood outside their condominiums talking and small children played in the street, two carloads of men pulled up next to Cruz and his friend Morales and opened fire.

Cruz died at the scene. Morales was treated at Los Robles Regional Medical Center and released Sunday.

“They gunned him down like an animal,” said Pedro Cruz, his eyes red from crying. “He didn’t deserve to die like that.”

The Conejo Creek complex has long been a hot spot for police, who have logged an average of 850 calls for service during the past few years, with 40% of those occurring on weekends.