Oxnard, Ventura Police Call In Reinforcements Against Gangs

Responding to a flurry of deadly gang-related violence, police departments in Oxnard and Ventura have nearly doubled their gang enforcement teams for the busy Memorial Day weekend. Extra officers will patrol some of the cities’ roughest neighborhoods at least through Monday with the help of gang enforcement teams from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“We are going to be aggressive and get a handle on this,” said Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez. “We are jumping on this a bit quicker than in the past. We have learned some lessons.”

Officers from his department’s violent crimes task force and special enforcement units hit the streets almost immediately after the fatal stabbing Monday night of a 15-year-old Oxnard boy and a triple shooting Tuesday that wounded three teenagers, Lopez said.

On Thursday, police arrested a man and a 16-year-old boy at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard on suspicion of stabbing an 18-year-old man outside a music store during a gang confrontation hours earlier.

“By putting pressure on gang members, we are looking for violations and will have no tolerance,” said Cmdr. Mike Matlock, who heads Oxnard’s gang enforcement unit.

“When you put more enforcement out, you put the pressure on, and [gang members] know there is a higher likelihood they will get caught,” Matlock said.

In Ventura, where the Police Department’s main focus has been finding the man who shot and killed a 20-year-old college student Wednesday night, more gang detectives will remain on the street through the holiday weekend.

Although the gunman who shot Jose Pimentel yelled out the name of a well-known Oxnard gang after the shooting, police have not found a link among the attacks, said officials with both police agencies.

Ventura police spokesman Sgt. Brock Avery said detectives from gang, property crimes and school resources units compared information on the shooting and will remain on the street hunting down leads and attempting to prevent another attack.

“They are taking their work out from behind the desk and into the field,” Avery said. “Issues related to gang areas have been highlighted and the expectation will be to make increased contact in known gang areas.”

As close-knit families in Oxnard and Ventura made funeral plans after this week’s violence, investigators continued to piece together what led to the attacks.

Javier Marquez, 15, died Tuesday after being stabbed following a car chase through city streets that ended only blocks from the Oxnard home he shared with his parents and 14-year-old brother.

The boy’s parents said they did not know whether he was involved with one of the city’s 12 street gangs, and police have few leads about suspects in the slaying.

Hours after Marquez was pronounced dead at St. John’s, three teenagers were shot when a gunman stepped from a car and opened fire as they stood in the courtyard of a Pleasant Valley Road apartment complex.

The three were treated at area hospitals for gunshot wounds to their legs. No suspects have been arrested.

Less than six hours later, Pimentel, whom relatives described as a hard-working college student who had hoped to become a police officer, was shot in the head as he stood with friends in front of his uncle’s Olive Street home in west Ventura.

Avery and members of the popular young man’s family said there was no indication that Pimentel was a gang member. The brazen nature of the shooting and the killing of what would appear to be an innocent victim have stunned officers, Avery said.

“The patrol staff in the area feels victimized by this,” Avery said. “Everyone is talking about this and about trying to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

But the violence returned Thursday in Oxnard, where members of two gangs began fighting about 5:15 p.m. in the parking lot near the Wherehouse music store at Gonzales Road and Oxnard Boulevard, said Det. Brett Smith of the Oxnard Police Department.

Three young men were stabbed, but only one remained at the scene by the time police arrived. The 18-year-old victim, whose name was not released, was taken by ambulance to St. John’s with at least seven wounds to his back and stomach, authorities said.

While in the emergency room he identified a man and a teenager, who also were being treated for stab wounds, as his assailants. Police arrested 19-year-old Victor Dearcos of Oxnard and the teenage boy for investigation of attempted murder, Smith said.

The sudden spike in gang-related attacks in Oxnard is similar to a weeklong period in the fall of 2000, when five shootings in less than a week prompted a citywide police crackdown.

Lopez came under fire at that time by members of the City Council who demanded that he outline his plan for ending the violence. Although he was one of Lopez’s key critics then, Mayor Manuel Lopez, who is not related to Art Lopez, praised the chief’s recent actions.

“I am very pleased with the response and I’m sure it will be effective,” the mayor said. “I know that [Chief Lopez] is on top of the situation.... People learn from their experience that you have to respond quickly.”

Times staff writer Amanda Covarrubias contributed to this report.