Officials Clash Over Handling of Gangs : Thousand Oaks: A councilwoman reacts to the city’s first drive-by slaying. She says City Hall is not taking the problem seriously enough. The mayor disagrees.

Thousand Oaks civic leaders on Monday clashed over the city’s response to gang violence, as Ventura County sheriff’s deputies arrested two more suspects in the fatal drive-by shooting of a 20-year-old woman.

The death of a bystander indicates that gang violence is more serious than civic leaders will admit, Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said.

Jennifer Jordan, whose boyfriend associates with gang members, was the random victim of a bullet fired Friday from a passing car during a birthday party for her boyfriend’s mother.

Until now, the Sheriff’s Department has said the city’s low crime rate makes Thousand Oaks one of the safest communities of its size.

Because of that reputation, city leaders “have had their heads in the sand,” Zeanah said.

“If the city a couple of years ago had not excused our problems of wanna-bes, we wouldn’t be where we are today. We’re so worried about our image that we don’t want to address the problem,” she said.

Zeanah said the city should step up a campaign against gang violence by promoting neighborhood anti-gang patrols and more crime-prevention programs.

However, other officials, including Councilman Alex Fiore, say Zeanah, a relative newcomer on the City Council, is misinformed.

Fiore, who heads a crime-prevention task force composed of city, school and park officials, denied that the city played down gang activity and called Zeanah’s remarks ridiculous.

“It seems every time something goes sour, she thinks it’s always the city’s fault,” he said. “We have taken the problem seriously.”

Mayor Frank Schillo said “the council is quite aware with what’s going on with gangs. I think we’ve been cautious about having intensive police surveillance to discourage L.A. gangs coming to this area.”

Fiore said he may call a special meeting of the task force in response to heightened concern about gang violence.

“I’d like to hire one officer for every known member of a gang in the community, but that’s not possible,” he said.

At last count, there were 38 hard-core gang members and another 82 known associates, authorities say.

Authorities, who have blamed street gangs for Jordan’s death, have arrested four suspects in connection with the slaying. Authorities said the bullet that struck Jordan was meant for two gang members walking to a nearby car. The shooting Friday was the first drive-by slaying in the city, officials said.

On Monday, Breta Bates, 28, and Kirstin Elizabeth McLuckie, 19, both of Chino Hills, were taken into custody at the Thousand Oaks home of McLuckie’s family, Lt. Joe Harwell said.

Witnesses told authorities that there were two men and two women in a BMW believed to be the vehicle used in the attack, Harwell said. Authorities traced to Bates a BMW that matched that description, he said.

Two men, Scott Kastan, 18, of Westlake Village and Patrick Strickland, 22, of Thousand Oaks were arrested Sunday in connection with the shooting. A .38-caliber pistol found in Kastan’s Logwood Drive home is suspected of being the weapon used in the shooting.

The four are being held in Ventura County Jail, each on $250,000 bail. They are scheduled to be arraigned at 1:30 p.m. today on murder charges.

Harwell refused to identify the gunman, pending completion of the investigation. He also refused to identify the gangs involved in the shooting, but said both men had gang affiliations. The women do not have any known gang connections.

Jordan’s boyfriend, Greg Figueroa, has acknowledged that he associates with members of the Houston Hoods, one of three gangs active in Thousand Oaks.

Sheriff’s officials say there are two other youth gangs: the Small Town Hoods and TOCAS, which stands for Thousand Oaks California Sur.

Cmdr. William Wade, who heads the East Valley sheriff’s station, said local gangs cross ethnic and economic lines and include youths who profess to be white supremacists but who associate with black and Latino gang members.

Wade said the department two years ago assigned two deputies to work on gang violence after a rise in graffiti and gang-related crimes. In addition to identifying gang members and their associates, the Sheriff’s Department has also tried to prevent confrontations.

In recent months, the gangs have been responsible for graffiti and nonfatal stabbings. “Previously, we only saw knives. Now we’re seeing more guns,” Wade said.

Deputies in April used information gathered on gang members to identify and bar gang members who wanted to attend the Conejo Valley Days festival at Conejo Creek Park. Six youths were arrested in an earlier shooting about the same time, he said.

Wade attributed the violence to the peer pressure that makes it acceptable for even children from middle-class families to become gang members.

“We’ve said from the beginning these kids are emulating behavior they see in Los Angeles. Now we have somebody deceased,” he said.

“Thousand Oaks is a microcosm of the society in which we live. This behavior has become commonplace in Southern California. It’s happening in Oxnard. What makes us think we are going to escape it?” he said.