Neighbors Noticed Changes in Suspect

Reynaldo Herrera Rodriguez was a personable man, well known in his middle-class Thousand Oaks neighborhood for his evening walks and easy-going manner.

Neighbors say he loved children, went out of his way to make conversation and seemed a model homeowner in a place where safety and security are highly prized.

But lately there had been some disturbing changes in the man police are seeking in connection with a shooting spree that left three people dead and two wounded in Simi Valley on Wednesday.

“A month ago he held a party and there was this big argument outside,” said Lindalisa Louis, 42, who lives nearby. “It was an odd thing, because he was always so quiet.”

Another neighbor said Rodriguez, 35, a civil engineer for Caltrans, had seemed depressed. He had long absences away from home that made some neighbors question whether he still lived there. Others said he spent inordinate amounts of time digging up his front yard but not planting anything.

“I saw him only two or three times,” said Jerry Cook, 62, who lives down the street. “I wondered whether he lived there or was just working on the house.”

But those who knew him well said he was the ideal neighbor.

Christi Raftery, 28, lives next door and would sometimes send her small children over to give him cookies.

“He was a good neighbor, he was friendly to us and our children,” she said. “I’m in shock. He was a really nice man and I can’t stress that enough. My 5-year-old daughter keeps asking when Ray is coming home.”

Rodriguez, who has no criminal record, would stop by Louis’ house to compliment her on her Christmas lights.

“He lived alone and walked a lot,” she said. “His dad would come over from time to time to work on the lawn. This is such a shock because nothing happens in Thousand Oaks.”

Police believe Rodriguez drove a rented sports utility vehicle to the Simi Valley home of Ana and Rafael Calderon on Wednesday afternoon, went inside and shot five people.

Officers Stationed in Caltrans Office

The dead are an 80-year-old woman, a 12-year-old boy and the 4-year-old daughter of his former girlfriend. Two teenagers were wounded by gunfire and a third was injured when he jumped from a second-story window. Rodriguez is still at large.

Security at the downtown Los Angeles Caltrans office where Rodriguez has worked since 1999 was beefed up Thursday with three California Highway Patrol officers stationed in the hallway.

Caltrans officials said he was a state transportation engineer who worked in the department’s Spring Street office. His most recent assignment was in the agency’s project studies branch, a unit that evaluates future projects, such as freeway widenings or extensions.

“Everybody feels very badly for the family and for this employee if he was involved,” said Caltrans spokeswoman Margie Tiritilli who declined to say more about Rodriguez.

According to Caltrans records, Rodriguez most recently worked on evaluating a $22-million proposal to upgrade Route 71, the Chino Valley Freeway in Pomona.

Meanwhile, a stream of cars full of spectators drove down Teasdale Street, looking and sometimes videotaping Rodriguez’s empty white house.

“People always say this is the safest community, but they don’t realize that a lot of sick people look just like anyone else,” said Robert Garrett, 64, as he cruised past in his black Navigator, snapping pictures. “I don’t ever let my guard down, you don’t know who the deviants are or where they live.”

Rodriguez’s cream-colored pick-up truck still sat in the driveway.

Parts of the home were scorched by a fire that officials think Rodriguez set shortly before the killings. The skylights were broken, the drapes bent and mangled and gray smoke stains mottled the exterior.

Tim Zorich, 30, was building an addition on a house a few doors down when he saw the smoke.

He ran around the back of the home and looked in the window.

“I saw this reddish glow and a fizzing like a flare inside,” he recalled. “It looked like a flare on the floor.”

Police Keep Watch on Family’s Home

The Fire Department has not released details about what caused the blaze, but a spokesman said firefighters saw something inside the sparsely furnished house that made them suspect arson. He would not elaborate.

Rodriguez grew up near Thousand Oaks High School, less than a mile from his current home.

Family members gathered at his parents’ single-story, stucco home all day Thursday. They refused to discuss the killings or any aspect of Rodriguez’s life, initially denying he ever lived there. A car with two undercover police officers kept watch from a distance. Another unmarked car with police inside was stationed outside Rodriguez’s home on Teasdale.

Neighbors said the Rodriguez family was a close-knit bunch.

“When I saw [Rodriguez’s] picture in the paper I went crazy,” said John Amoghlian, 66, who lives a few houses away. “I’ve been here 25 years and they have always been quiet and kept to themselves. I would see the son going in there sometimes. They seemed like good kids.”

Another neighbor, Ara Derentz, 66, was also surprised.

I never expected anything like this here,” he said. “Only angels are supposed to live around here.”

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Times staff writers Hugo Martin and Tracy Wilson contributed to this story.