Mayor Vows That Gangs Will Not Be Tolerated : Crime: A 16-year-old suspect in a deadly weekend shootout is released.

As an investigation into one of Ventura County’s bloodiest gang brawls continued, Thousand Oaks Mayor Judy Lazar trudged Monday along the street where the weekend’s deadly shootout occurred, reassuring residents that the city will fight back against violence.

“We want to let you know we will keep putting as much pressure on these gangs as possible,” Lazar told neighbors, while sheriff’s deputies handed out flyers on Neighborhood Watch programs. “The city has a zero-tolerance policy against gangs.”

The message comforted a few residents, who had been startled to hear a rapid exchange of shots around midnight Saturday, when rival gang members, keyed up after a brief altercation, pulled out their handguns during a birthday party on the quiet, well-kept residential street.

Some party-goers had apparently sneaked in guns, or stashed them in nearby cars, even though the hostess’ boyfriend systematically frisked everyone entering the front door, witnesses said.

“I never expected anything like that out here,” said neighbor Ken Roberts, who has lived on the cul-de-sac for 17 years. “It’s a sad state of affairs when kids are searching other kids for weapons at a party.”

The shootout killed Miguel Flores, 18, of Camarillo and wounded three other teen-agers. Celena Mendoza, 20, of Thousand Oaks suffered the most serious injury: spinal damage and a collapsed lung. She was listed in critical but stable condition in the intensive care unit at Los Robles Regional Medical Center.

A 16-year-old Thousand Oaks boy who had been arrested on suspicion of murder was released Monday afternoon to his parents, although he remains a suspect in the back-yard slaying, Lt. Kathy Kemp said.

“Rather than do this piecemeal, we wanted to do more interviews” and draw up a complete list of suspects, Kemp said, explaining why the Sheriff’s Department released the boy.

Appalled at the violence in their neighborhood, most residents of Fordham Avenue welcomed the sheriff’s deputies and the mayor.

After basking for years in Thousand Oaks’ annual ranking as one of the nation’s safest cities, residents said the shootout forced them for the first time to consider the possibility of crime on their doorsteps.

They had not held a Neighborhood Watch meeting in 10 years, but several indicated that they hoped to revive the informal crime-prevention group.

“It was a complete shock to know that there is gang-related madness here,” said Crishon Nagel, who moved to Fordham Avenue five years ago. “It was so surreal.”

With three gangs and only about 50 hard-core members, Thousand Oaks’ teen crime problem would seem less severe than in other cities. Oxnard police, for example, track some 30 gangs in the city, and have identified close to 1,800 members, said Police Department spokesman David Keith.

But the weekend shootout, which involved a gang from Camarillo and at least one from Thousand Oaks, was among the bloodiest incidents of gang violence anywhere in the county in recent years.

“I can’t remember a single incident in recent years as serious as the one in Thousand Oaks,” Keith said.

City leaders urged residents to turn their horror into positive energy, by organizing Neighborhood Watch groups, throwing block parties to discuss crime-prevention tactics and keeping a closer eye on children who might be drawn to gangs. Only about 40% of the city is covered by active Neighborhood Watch groups, according to Sgt. Bruce Hansen.

“We shouldn’t stick our head in the sand,” Councilwoman Elois Zeanah said. “We should not try to hide behind the label that we’re one of the safest cities.”

Councilman Frank Schillo added a similar warning: “This incident shows that this kind of violence can happen anywhere, not just in the barrios.”

The slaying was especially traumatic for Chuck Jordan, whose 20-year-old daughter was gunned down in Thousand Oaks during a gang-related drive-by shooting in 1991. Now an Oxnard resident and anti-gang activist, Jordan had vowed to make his daughter’s death the last such killing in Thousand Oaks.

“Now my vow is useless,” Jordan said. “I’m absolutely appalled. Our city fathers have to wake up and quit bragging about how safe Thousand Oaks is, because we’re all in this together in Ventura County and the crime wave is here already.”

Jordan’s death in 1991 was Thousand Oaks’ first drive-by shooting, but the city has experienced sporadic gang-related violence since at least 1989, Lt. David Tennessen said.

The most recent fights, involving rival Thousand Oaks gangs, took place in September and October of 1992, he said. In both incidents, participants were injured by stabbing. A two-day gang sweep in March, which netted several arrests, helped mute further violence, Tennessen said.

While bloodshed has been minimal, the rate of tagging has shot up dramatically this spring, with the city recording 240% more graffiti than last year, according to the Public Works Department.

The sudden escalation to gunshots shocked even some teens associated with the gangs.

“We’ve gotten in fistfights before, with crowbars and stuff, but never with guns. That’s dumb,” said Nick Canales, who was celebrating his 19th birthday at the party.

Canales is organizing a fund-raiser to help pay the hospital bills for his cousin, Mendoza, who may be paralyzed from the waist down. He plans to ask for donations at a rap concert given by Mendoza’s brother and the band Nuthin Less, scheduled for July 3 at the Thousand Oaks Teen Center.

And in an effort to soothe some of the Camarillo gang’s anger at the death of their buddy, 16-year-old Erin Androvich of Thousand Oaks said she plans to get a shirt lettered with “In Loving Memory of Miguel Flores.”

“I want everybody to know he was somebody very special,” said Androvich, who hung out with the Camarillo group and encouraged them to come to the party. “He didn’t deserve what he got.”