Oxnard Resident Fatally Shot in His Apartment

A 23-year-old man was shot while in his Oxnard apartment Friday night and later died, marking the city’s fourth homicide this year and the ninth in Ventura County.

Police officers arrived at an apartment complex in the 500 block of West Hill Street about 10:20 p.m. after receiving reports of gunfire. They found David Marceleno with a gunshot wound in his chest.

Marceleno died during surgery at St. John’s Regional Medical Center, said Oxnard Police Sgt. Bernie Schmalhofer. Detectives are trying to determine whether Marceleno knew the assailant but have not identified a motive or a suspect.

If the pace of killings in Oxnard remains steady, the city could far exceed its homicide rate from the past few years. This time in 2002 the city had no homicides; the first of 10 slayings for the year occurred March 23. The city had six killings in 2001.

Marceleno’s death comes less than a week after that of Mark Droney, 42, who was shot Feb. 1 in his home on Geronimo Drive in Oxnard. Droney died a day later at a local hospital, and authorities have since arrested Damion Jackson, 20, of Oxnard on suspicion of attempted robbery and murder.

The other homicides include the Jan. 21 shooting of Ralph Lopez, 35, of Oxnard, who was found dead in his car on North Grant Avenue the next day. Lopez had been shot several times in the head. No arrests have been made in the Lopez case.

Oxnard police have identified a suspect in another shooting death that occurred in the city Jan. 18. Raymundo Sanchez Celis, 23, of Oxnard is wanted in connection with the slaying of Miguel Solis, 37.

Solis was shot on Richmond Avenue after a confrontation over a parking space, allegedly between Sanchez Celis and the victim’s brother, police said.