No Suspects Yet in Drive-By Shooting

Oxnard police on Thursday still had no motives or suspects in a drive-by shooting from the night before that injured two youths.

Residents in the Channel Islands Boulevard apartment complex where the shooting took place said they fear that the incident was a gang retaliation, but police said they are looking into several possibilities.

“It could be narcotics-related,” said Sgt. Cliff Troy. “It could be gang-related. Frankly, right now we are not really sure.”

Derrick Parks, 16, was in serious condition Thursday in St. John’s Regional Medical Center. Police said he may be paralyzed after being shot in the lower back.

Travon Miller, 19, was released from the hospital Wednesday, suffering minor cuts to his face, police said.

Parks and Miller were standing and talking in an alley when passengers in an unidentified car drove past and fired at the pair, according to investigators.

Police and fire crews worked Thursday to recover a bullet from the shooting that lodged in another apartment building across the street from the alley.

Residents of the apartment complex say shootings have increased in the past year and they fear more violence .

“It’s been bad,” said one neighbor who did not want to be identified. “I am getting the hell out of here. I am going back to Santa Barbara where I used to live and where it’s safer.”

At the Conrad-Carroll Mortuary less than one block from where the shooting occurred, funeral director Herb Watson expressed dismay at the violence.

“This year has been worse than before,” Watson said. “I don’t like seeing all these kids coming in through the mortuary.”