Victim May Not Have Been Target : Crime: A 17-year-old was killed after a gang member riding in his car exchanged dirty looks with a rival.

The fatal shooting of a 17-year-old youth outside a coin-operated laundry in Oxnard was described by police Tuesday as a gang-related incident of “mad-dogging” between members of two rival gangs.

William F. Leadbetter of Oxnard was fatally shot after a friend in his car apparently exchanged dirty looks with a gang member in another vehicle outside the Airport Coin Laundromat on 5th Street, police said.

According to Sgt. Denny Phillips, Leadbetter was not a gang member and the bullet that killed him Monday afternoon may have been intended for his passenger, Joey Ramirez, 20, an alleged member of the Trouble Street El Rio gang.

“I’m more of the opinion that they got the wrong guy,” Phillips said. “I really think the shooter was trying to get the other guy.”

Police said Leadbetter had been driving on 5th Street shortly after 2 p.m. Monday when he and Ramirez drove past a car driven by Jessie Casares, 20, whom police described as a member of the rival Colonia gang.

“They slowed down and glared at each other,” Lt. Robert Kelley said. “It’s a common gang thing. They call it mad-dogging.”

Kelley said both Leadbetter and Casares pulled into the parking lot of the laundry, where Casares apparently got out of the car and started shooting a .25-caliber pistol.

Leadbetter, who was struck in the eye, was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, where he died. Casares, who fled the scene, was later arrested on suspicion of homicide, police said.

“The real tragedy in this is two families are going to lose their sons: one to homicide, the other to prison,” Kelley said. “And mad-dogging is not a good reason for this to happen to families.”

At Leadbetter’s residence--a white, stucco house in a quiet, working-class neighborhood--his parents declined to comment.

Leadbetter was in his fourth year at Rio Mesa High School, according to school officials. A yearbook photograph taken last year shows a clean-cut, handsome teen-ager in a T-shirt.

“We are shocked and very upset,” said Becky Buettner, Leadbetter’s guidance counselor. “He’s a nice kid and didn’t deserve this to happen.”

Buettner said she had never heard of Leadbetter being affiliated with gangs. She said he was more interested in his job at an automobile supply store and tinkering with his red, customized mini-truck.

For the last year, Leadbetter had been enrolled in an independent study program that allowed him to meet weekly with a teacher at district headquarters and study at home, Buettner said.

She said the youth had requested the independent study program so that he would have time to work. When he was enrolled at Oxnard High School, he had an attendance problem and was a C student, Buettner said. But his grades improved to a B average after he enrolled in the independent study program, she said.

Buettner said Leadbetter was not planning to attend college.

“He was nice, decent,” she said.

Police said the shooting was the first gang-related killing in Oxnard since Manuel Rodriguez, 20, who belonged to a Latino gang called the Lemonwood Chiques, was shot and killed outside Channel Islands High School last November.

Arnel Salagubang, a former member of the rival Filipino gang called the Satanas, was recently convicted of second-degree murder. He was sentenced to 20 years to life.

Police have stepped up their efforts to curb gang activity in the city and are working closely with school officials to identify gang members, said Bill Cady, acting police chief.

He said the Police Department has identified five active youth gangs in the city.

“We have always been concerned about youth gangs; they are nothing new here,” Cady said. “But it looks like they have become more and more violent. Violent crime is on the upswing everywhere.”