Drive-By Shooting Leaves 3 Wounded

SANTA PAULA — Three men were wounded in an apparent gang-related drive-by shooting at a party, police said Saturday.

The men, ages 18 to 21, were treated for “extremity wounds” and released in satisfactory condition from Santa Paula Memorial Hospital early Saturday, an emergency room staff nurse said.

Authorities declined to identify the victims, who suffered eight gunshot wounds among them, and police had no suspects in the attack, said Sgt. Paul Higgason of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“We believe it to be gang-related,” Higgason said. “It doesn’t appear to be a retaliation for anything, but it could evolve into something over the weekend.”

Residents of the working-class neighborhood called police when they heard gunshots in the 4000 block of Ojai-Santa Paula Road shortly after 11 p.m. Friday.

When they arrived, authorities said, they found 30 to 40 “uncooperative” people who “appeared to be gang members” at the party. The shooting victims had already been taken to the hospital.

Saturday afternoon, all was quiet in the Santa Paula neighborhood and no one was home at the white stucco house where the shootings occurred. The house, surrounded by a 5-foot-high chain-link fence, sat on a lot filled with 2-foot-high weeds in an otherwise neat neighborhood.

One neighbor said Saturday that she was already at the emergency room when the gunshot victims were brought in. She also described them as being uncooperative.

“I knew there would be problems last night because there were just too many wild kids running around,” said the neighbor, who, fearing potential gang activity, had called the Sheriff’s Department before going to the hospital for an unrelated reason.

She said she told a sheriff’s deputy that there had been a drive-by shooting in the neighborhood two years ago and that she had feared it would happen again because of the party’s rowdy crowd, which she said consisted of mainly of teenagers.

“This is usually a very quiet neighborhood,” said the neighbor. “It was irritating and it was frustrating. We’re really angry today. Everyone I’ve talked to said they had to grab their children and duck.”

The occupant of the house, a man in his early 20s, has lived there alone since his parents moved out two months ago, the neighbor said.

The woman said she fears for the children who ride their bikes or walk along Ojai-Santa Paula Road to school each day.

“To have that here in our neighborhood is scary and something we do not want,” she said.

Another neighbor said he was in the back of his house playing guitar when he heard the gunshots.

“We first thought it was fireworks, but then we heard people screaming that someone got shot,” said that neighbor. “We were going to go outside and see what was going on, but decided to stay inside until the cops came.”

He said he has not experienced problems in the neighborhood in the 10 years he has lived there.

“I have no idea what it’s all about,” he said. “The people next door pretty much keep to themselves. It’s usually quiet there. I think it’s just that they wanted to have a party and the people who came brought the trouble with them.”