Oxnard Boy, 14, Killed; Gang Link Suspected : Crime: Gabriel Alcazar Jr. is shot in an alley. Police believe the incident is the result of tensions between Latino and African American groups.

A 14-year-old Oxnard boy was shot and killed in an alley about a block from his home Thursday morning in the latest in a series of violent incidents that police suspect are gang related.

Gabriel Alcazar Jr., a former Channel Island High School student enrolled in an alternative study program, was shot several times at 9:13 a.m. near K Street at Hull Place, not far from Oxnard High School, police said.

Taken to St. John’s Regional Medical Center, he was pronounced dead 45 minutes later.

Police would not say where the boy, whom they described as a gang member, was wounded or how many times he was shot. Witnesses said Alcazar was shot in the torso several times and in the head.

Police refused to discuss their suspects in detail except to say that two young men were seen leaving the area in a dark, small vehicle.

Assistant Oxnard Police Chief Tom Cady said that investigators think the shooting could be the result of tensions between a Latino gang to which Alcazar belonged and an African American gang.

Cady said that members of the black gang are suspects.

“We have some leads leading toward some folks,” he said. “We would look to see if there is some cycle of retaliation going on. That’s certainly one of the things we will look to see.”

However, the assistant chief said that investigators were not yet sure if Thursday’s shooting was the result of a personal argument or the outgrowth of an ongoing gang feud.

Police spokesman David Keith said officers recently conducted gang sweeps in the same Hull Place neighborhood, a mixture of condominiums and apartment buildings.

During a crackdown about a week ago, police said, residents reported incidents where gang members shot guns into the air, dealt drugs and stared down passersby.

Residents of the neighborhood said Thursday that violence between two rival gangs has escalated in recent months, and several fistfights and shootouts have taken place this week alone.

“Sometimes I go out to get the garbage, and I get scared,” said Alicia Garibay, who has lived on the block for two years where the shooting took place. “There are so many gang members coming to this neighborhood.”

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Garibay said the neighborhood has become immersed in the drug trade, and younger residents said the area has become a battlefield for clashes between gangs of high school-age youths--one Latino and the other African American.

Daniel Nandez, 27, whose garage is just feet away from the alley where the shooting took place, said he was loading his pickup truck Thursday morning as Alcazar and another young man argued.

“To me it sounded like they were friends,” said Nandez, who is moving out of the neighborhood. “Then they started (shooting).”

Nandez said he heard five or six gunshots and dropped to the ground. He said he did not turn to look at the shooter, fearful that he would be killed.

“So I popped here to the side,” he said, pointing next to his truck, “cause I seen the guy drop. I could see the guy was hurt, and I ran inside. I was so close.”

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Nandez said he and his wife called police, then stepped outside to see if they could help Alcazar, who had been shot in the torso and the head.

“He was still alive when we got there,” Nandez said. “But he couldn’t talk. There was blood coming out of his mouth.”

Neighbors, many of whom did not know the victim, gathered around the alley, discussing the violence that was suddenly plaguing their community.

They placed flowers beside the bloody circle of pavement where Alcazar had fallen. They posted a card on the wall. Unsigned, it read: “May God bless you . . . Love and Peace.”

One neighbor said Alcazar typically dressed in baggy clothing and hung around with teen-agers from the neighborhood. His family could not be reached for comment.

Jim Nielson, principal of the Oxnard Union High School District’s Puente Program where Alcazar was a student, said he did not know the boy or why he transferred into the program in early November after only two months at Channel Islands High.

Under the program, students report weekly for work assignments but do not attend classes. The continuation school program is normally for students who are in danger of failing.

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John Triolo, principal at Channel Islands High School, would not comment on why Alcazar was transferred to the Puente program.

While police would not comment on suspects, Hueneme High School Principal Joanne Black said an investigator questioned her about an 18-year-old former student, whom she declined to identify. She said the youth attended Hueneme last fall and was “on line for graduation” before dropping out.

Although dismayed by the shooting, Bill Studt, superintendent of the Oxnard Union High School District, noted that the shooting occurred off-campus.

“The problem is not in the schools,” he said. “The problem is in the streets of the city.”

Studt and Cady said district leaders and police have worked together closely to curb gang activity at school, including stationing officers on campus at the beginning of the school year because of gang violence over the summer.

Studt said dress codes have been adopted to discourage gang identification and metal detectors are used to randomly search students for weapons.

“We know who the gang bangers are and we watch them closely,” Studt said.

Oxnard police, too, said they are working hard to clear the streets of gang violence. Thursday morning, about an hour after Alcazar’s death, they arrested a 16-year-old youth suspected in a gang-related shooting earlier this week in south Oxnard, police said.

The youth was arrested at Frontier High School, where he was in school, and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, police said. He is suspected of shooting another 16-year-old boy in the back Monday night in an incident on the 1400 block of Casa San Carlos, police said.

He is now in custody at Clifton Tatum Juvenile Hall.

Times correspondent Catherine Saillant contributed to this story.