Council, Chief to Huddle on Shootings

In response to the escalating gang violence on Oxnard streets, the City Council has summoned Police Chief Art Lopez to a closed-door meeting today.

City Manager Ed Sotelo said the closed session will be a personnel meeting in which the council expects to quiz Lopez about the recent spate of shootings and his ideas for stopping them.

“We are going to talk about some performance issues, but these are issues that I can’t talk about publicly,” said Sotelo, who joined Lopez on patrol Saturday night as police increased their presence after the recent shootings. “But it would not be part of the annual review I am doing with him.”

At the meeting--first discussed among City Council members Thursday after the fifth shooting in Oxnard in less than a week--Lopez said he will update the council on plans to curb the violence. He said he planned to step up gang suppression efforts “as much as we can” in the coming weeks.

Detectives and officers on the street are more aggressively approaching informants who can help police catch those responsible for the recent shootings, Lopez said. He didn’t rule out increased community involvement, but said the police presence would have to be minimal for that to succeed.

“We can help coordinate the efforts, but I’m not sure I should be involved with trying to get that group together,” he said. “We need people with credibility, and when they say that it is time to stop, [gang members] will listen.”

Police made their presence on the streets more evident last weekend as two dozen extra officers patrolled after dark Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

About two dozen people were arrested during the weekend push, said Oxnard Police Cmdr. Mike Matlock.

Despite the increased presence, which included members of the crime and gang-suppression units of the Oxnard police and county sheriff’s departments, two people were shot and wounded Saturday.

Late Monday night police said they had arrested at least one man in connection with one of the shootings since Nov. 10. Police had no further details about the arrest.

“There is no point to it,” Lopez said of the shootings as he sat in his office Monday. “This strategy is still developing, but we are bolstering the number of people on this.”

Concerning the closed-door meeting, City Atty. Gary Gillig said as long as council members stick to questions about the role played by Lopez in the department’s ongoing struggle to get control of the problem, they won’t violate state open-meeting laws.

“Let’s face it, it’s an embarrassment,” Gillig said of the shootings, which have left one Oxnard teenager dead and six other victims injured.

Gillig, who is on vacation this week, said his instructions to Assistant City Atty. Paula Kimbrell are clear: If the discussion moves beyond what role Lopez played as a supervisor and into planning strategy, the meeting must be moved to the council chambers.

Lopez could also choose to write a confidential memo detailing the department’s approach to stopping the shootings, Gillig said.

“If there is any idea of him coming in with a grand plan, then that could be done in public,” Gillig said. “We have a new police chief and we have had great success in reducing crime. But we are not doing so well now. . . . [Lopez] is not happy that he has to go in and explain himself.”

Mayor Manuel Lopez, who was unavailable for comment Monday, led the effort to schedule a meeting with the chief, who is nearing the end of his second year as Oxnard’s top police official.

City Councilman John Zaragoza said he was hoping for a full update from the police chief on what the department is doing to end the violence.

“I would like to find out why these boys are shooting each other,” Zaragoza said. “We need to know what has started this rivalry. We need to give the chief some direction.”

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Location of Oxnard Shootings

Seven gang-related shootings in the Oxnard area recently have prompted police to increase patrols throughout the city. The site of the third shooting -- not shown on the map -- occurred in El Rio, just outside the city’s boundaries.

Source: Oxnard Police Department