2 Men Killed in Party Brawl

Ventura County recorded its 11th and 12th homicides of the new year early Sunday when a fight erupted at a large gang party in Santa Paula, resulting in a shooting that left two men dead.

These were Santa Paula’s first slayings of the year and bring the weekend total in the county to three. Late Friday, a 23-year-old Oxnard man died at a hospital after being shot in the chest inside his small west side apartment.

The most recent gunshot victims were both from Santa Paula, and also in their 20s.

No arrests have been made in the weekend killings, part of a surge of deadly violence that has gripped the county in recent weeks. In 2002, there were 23 homicides in the region, and the first didn’t occur until late February.

Santa Paula Police Det. Ish Cordero, who is heading the investigation of the latest shootings, said he hopes the killings in his city were part of an isolated incident and not a precursor of more violence.

“For whatever reason, people at this party got into it and two people were shot,” Cordero said.

About 1 a.m. Sunday, Santa Paula police officers responded to reports of gunfire near Encino Place and Richmond Road, a residential area on the city’s north side, just off California 150.

En route, officers were flagged down by a woman who had pulled over while driving her boyfriend, 23-year-old Ignacio Henry Castro, to a local hospital. Castro, she said, had been shot in the head at a party of more than 100 people at a house on Encino Place.

Another person in the woman’s car performed CPR on Castro until an ambulance arrived. Castro of Santa Paula was eventually moved to Ventura County Medical Center in Ventura, where he died shortly after 11 a.m. Sunday.

After Castro was transported, officers were searching for suspects when several gunshots rang out, Cordero said. Within seconds, officers saw dozens of people flee an area near the party in cars and on foot.

Although several people were detained and interviewed, most witnesses were drunk and uncooperative, Cordero said. Rival gang members and associates had been at the party, detectives learned, but no one was providing details.

Shortly before 5 a.m. Sunday, as officers continued to canvass the neighborhood for witnesses, they found 21-year-old Gustavo Ramirez Jr. of Santa Paula sprawled dead on the front lawn of a house only a few blocks from where the party had been held.

Ramirez had been shot once in the upper chest, possibly while fleeing the party, authorities said. No weapons have been recovered.

Because of a lack of cooperation from witnesses, detectives are struggling to resolve the case. Cordero said it appears Ramirez and Castro were affiliated in some way with rival gangs, but it’s unclear whether Ramirez’s shooting was retaliation for Castro’s injuries.

Court records indicate both men have had serious run-ins with the law during the last few years.

Ramirez was only recently released from Ventura County Jail after being ordered in late December to spend 30 days in custody for being involved in a hit-and-run incident.

Since 1999, he has been charged with more than a dozen crimes and eventually convicted for possession of a deadly weapon and marijuana, vehicle burglary and resisting arrest. He served time or paid fines for those offenses.

Castro’s rap sheet includes 1998 felony convictions for possessing a controlled substance and a robbery, separate crimes that occurred within two months of each other. He also had an ongoing case from 1999 in which he was charged with assault with a deadly weapon and conspiracy to commit a crime.