Girl Walking Home Is Wounded by Gang Gunfire

VENTURA — A 13-year-old girl walking home from school was shot in the arm Friday, becoming an unintended victim of two warring gangs in the Cabrillo Village housing project in east Ventura, police said.

It was the second violent crime involving schoolchildren this week on the east end of town.

On Monday, a 10-year-old boy on his way to school had his bike and wallet stolen by a knife-wielding man on Partridge Drive. The boy was not injured, but the man held the knife to his head during the 7:30 a.m. incident. Police said the boy had $20 in his wallet. The suspect is at large.

Friday’s shooting happened about 3:10 p.m., as children walked home after being dropped off by school buses on South Saticoy Avenue. Witnesses said the victim was one of about 100 children walking on Cinco de Mayo, the main street leading into the development.

About 10 rounds were fired. Witnesses said two carloads of gang members drove through the camp, yelling at one another. As the cars drove east on Si Se Pueda Street, the occupants of one vehicle fired upon the other, said Ventura Police Lt. Roger Nustad.

One of the vehicles headed north on Q Street while the other drove north on South Saticoy Avenue, and then stopped at Cinco de Mayo. A gun-toting passenger in the front seat in one vehicle climbed out the window and rested his elbows on the roof of the car, Nustad said.

When the other vehicle turned east on Cinco de Mayo from Q Street, the passenger in the first car fired six times over the roof of the car toward the other vehicle.

One of those bullets struck the Balboa Middle School seventh-grader in the left arm, near the elbow. After being hit, the girl made her way to a nearby church.

She was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center. A hospital spokeswoman said she was treated and released.

The shooting occurred in a neighborhood where police say gangs have been fighting for years. The gang war has claimed at least one life, a 37-year-old single father of four who was killed by an errant gunshot in 1994.

The latest incidents are a wake-up call for residents, said Helena Torrez-Reaves, Balboa Middle School principal.

“Ventura is such a nice community to live in you feel that you are safe and that the children are safe. The reality is that there’s more violence that touches our lives every day,” she said. “I just think that a community as a whole needs to take a good look at what we need to do and not isolate ourselves.”

As police interviewed possible witnesses, children gathered on Cinco de Mayo, some of them questioning the safety of their neighborhood.

“I am really scared. My friend was crying,” said 12-year-old Cindy Ramirez, who was across the street when the girl was shot.

“A bullet came right by me, and I fell down. Then we all ran to the church,” she said.

Nacho Rodriguez Jr., 28, was sitting inside his house with his family when the shots were fired.

“When we heard the shots, I was scared. I went out running to see if my friend was OK,” he said.

The friend, a janitor, was fine. But Rodriguez, whose house is near the intersection of Cinco de Mayo and Q Street, saw the crowd gathered around the wounded girl.

“All of a sudden a lady yelled, ‘Who was shot, who was shot?’ ” he said.

Police were questioning possible suspects Friday night.

The man wanted in the armed robbery Monday is described as white, about 21 years old with short dark hair and an unshaven chin. He was wearing a black sport coat, white T-shirt and black pants.

Correspondents Regina Hong and Coll Metcalfe contributed to this story.