For most of the day, the tennis courts at Oxnard’s Lemonwood Park remained closed off to the public Thursday as police investigated the shooting death of a man in his 20s.
The body was discovered on the courts Thursday morning, but investigators said he may have been shot Wednesday night.
“We have reason to believe that the actual homicide occurred last night between the hours of 9 p.m. and 10 p.m.,” said Commander Andrew Salinas of the Oxnard Police Department.
Lemonwood park sits in the middle of a residential area on Oxnard’s east side, an area where police say neighbors are quick to call in suspicious activity.
Last night, they called in what sounded like gunshots.
“But at that time we were unable to locate any type of victim,” Salinas said.
The park is usually closed from dusk until dawn. Neighbors who live around the park said they’re too scared to speak openly about what happened, saying that they worry their neighborhood is changing for the worse.
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“Being that there are a limited amount of witnesses right now, we’re unsure if it’s gang related or not so we’re still attempting to investigate that,” Salinas said.
Investigators have not yet publicly identified the man so that they can first notify his next of kin.
The murder is the city’s seventh homicide of the year.
“We’re actually looking at all avenues to see what type of affiliations he had or is known to have,” Salinas said.
