Police said Tuesday that the fatal shooting of 20-year-old man in Oceanside's Mesa Margarita neighborhood on Monday afternoon appeared to be gang-related, marking the third slaying in the neighborhood in the past eight months.

The San Diego County Medical Examiner's Office identified the shooting victim as Stephen Adam Board of Oceanside.

Board, who police said was a documented gang member, was shot about 4 p.m. Monday by unknown assailants in front of a home at the corner of the Redondo Drive and Roja Drive.

Police said witnesses reported seeing three Hispanic males "wearing dark clothing fleeing from the area of the crime scene on foot."

The neighborhood around the shooting was quiet Tuesday morning, as investigators continued to work the scene. Police used metal detectors to scan the front yard of the home where the shooting took place.

The broad-daylight slaying was another blow in a community that has seen more than its share of violence.

In May 2011, a young couple, Fernando Solano, 16, and Sandra Salgado, 14, were shot to death in nearby Libby Lake Park. Neither had known gang ties. Three documented gang members are awaiting trial in that case.

Alisa Gomez, who said she and her family have lived on the 500 block of Redondo Drive for 12 years, said Tuesday that no one living in the neighborhood feels safe, especially after dark.
She said she no longer allows her son to walk to a nearby store for fear that he might get hurt.

"I'm scared for my kids she said.

Another young woman, who declined to provide her name for fear of reprisal, said the shooting was seen as almost routine by neighbors. She said she and others do not feel there is enough police enforcement patrolling Mesa Margarita.

"The police will have the area surrounded when there is a shooting, but then they will be gone," she said.

But Gomez said she believes that the neighborhood also must work with the police. She said many are afraid to call the police and file a report, which leads to bigger problems down the road.

"I (will) feel safe when everybody in the neighborhood, they see something no good, they call the police," Gomez said.

Mesa Margarita, which is just north of North River Road and east of Vandegrift Boulevard, is one of a cluster of neighborhoods in Northeast Oceanside with a history of gang violence.

Latino and black gangs have fought for years over turf in the area, leading the city to obtain a gang injunction that prohibits known gang members from hanging out together or flashing gang signs.

But that injunction, made permanent in 2000, has not stopped the violence.

Most famously Oceanside Police Officer Dan Bessant was fatally shot in 2006 by three gang members. He left behind a wife and a two-month-old son.

On Dec. 10, 2010, police found Edgar Luna, 18, dead of a gunshot wound to the head. Police are still looking for Luna's killer, but have made three arrests in the Solano-Salgado shooting.
Lt. Leonard Mata, a spokesman for the Oceanside Police Department, said that the Libby Lake-Mesa Margarita area does receive greater-than-average attention from law enforcement.
"We have directed patrols in that area for gang suppression. There certainly is a police presence both from our neighborhood policing unit and from our gang unit as well," Mata said.


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