Gang Suspected in Attack on Thousand Oaks House

Ventura County sheriff’s officials said Wednesday they still have no leads in a suspected gang vandalism last weekend of a black family’s home in Thousand Oaks.

Vandals shattered three windows and spray-painted a gang’s initials on the house in the 3300 block of Bordero Lane about 11:40 p.m. Sunday night, Sheriff’s Lt. Bill Montijo said.

Sheriff’s officials believe that members of the multiracial Small Town Hoods gang were responsible for the attack, because the letters STH were spray-painted on the outside walls, Montijo said.

“It’s obviously gang-related,” he said. But he said he did not believe that the incident was racially motivated. Sheriff’s officials are still investigating the incident.

But homeowner Clem Adkins, 49, said he believes that white-supremacist Skinheads, who are members of the gang, had vandalized the house to threaten his two teen-age sons. A night before the attack, vandals spray-painted the letters KKK on a nearby neighborhood wall. His sons have been racially harassed at school, he said.

Adkins said he believes that his family’s safety is threatened. “Whether it’s racially motivated or gang-related, I’m still in danger,” he said.

Adkins said he has asked the Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People to investigate the vandalism.