In Wake of Gang Attack, Mourning

SANTA PAULA —  Above the mournful melody of a Latin song, the wailing of Victor Manuel Avina’s sisters could be heard Friday on the street in front of the 17-year-old’s home.

A few blocks away, Angela Preciado Dominguez recalled running from her home the night before, kneeling over Avina, and listening to his last whispers.

“I knew it was bad when I saw the blood,” said Dominguez, 67. “I told him it was all right, wrapped him in a sheet and said the Lord’s Prayer over him, but I knew I couldn’t help him.”

At about 10 p.m., Avina was shot once in the head with a small-caliber weapon on North Ojai Street in front of the Santa Paula Orange Assn.

He died a short time later at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital.

Avina and a friend, Octavio Parra, 19, were shot while riding their bicycles along the street, police said.

Parra was hit in the upper back and was listed in stable condition at the hospital. After being shot, Parra ran to Dominguez’s home yelling for help.

“It was late and I had heard the shots, so I was asking who he was,” said Dominguez, who was trained as a nurse. “He said his friend needed help. I was brought up to help whoever asks for it.”

Neither Parra nor others who may have witnessed the shooting would cooperate with police, officials said.

“I told them they have to cooperate or his life would be wasted,” Dominguez said.

But on Friday, Parra and other possible witnesses were not cooperating, said Santa Paula Police Cmdr. Bob Gonzales.

“We usually have problems with witnesses in gang shootings,” Gonzales said.

Police believe the shooting was retaliation for an attack earlier that evening in which members of a rival Santa Paula gang were hit with either pellets or BBs, Gonzales said.

“We think that these individuals may have been laying in wait there for the two victims,” he said.

Witnessed described hearing about four consecutive shots before seeing three young men run from the area.

Gonzales said Avina had a run-in with an officer but was not considered a “hard-core gang member.”

“One of my officers actually spoke to him at a park that afternoon,” he said. “He said he was getting his act together working with his father.”

A dozen young tattooed men gathered in the driveway of Avina’s home Friday, shooing away reporters and police who wanted to know more about the killing.

“Now is not the time,” said one young man. Large block numbers denoting a local gang decorated the back of his forearms.

The night before, as news of the shooting spread, friends of Avina and family members poured into the area. His grief-stricken mother, Maria Avina, yelled at police to let her see her son.

At the scene Friday morning, a group of five young girls stood on the street and stared at the spot in the gutter where Avina died.

His blood had been washed away but the asphalt was still wet. On a yellow street sign that said “End” was fresh graffiti.

“He wasn’t bothering anybody,” said one of the teenage girls, who declined to be named.

On Friday morning Avina was described by the girls as a “lady’s man” who also fretted over the well-being of his four sisters. He attended Renaissance continuation school and was working with his father this summer at a local lemon-packing plant.

On the evening of the shooting, he was with friends on Ventura Street. Avina and Parra then rode their bicycles to a local restaurant for a bite to eat, then headed in the direction of Avina’s home.

He rode down 10th Street and crossed the railroad tracks, avoiding the rival gang’s territory, said Alice Martinez, 15, a friend.

“That’s why we go this way,” she said.

She said she wished that witnesses would come forward and talk with police.

“That’s what we’re hoping,” Martinez said. “We want this gang out of here.”