A 16-year-old boy is recovering after being shot in the upper torso Wednesday night in the 2600 block of Wagon Wheel Road near Spur Drive in Oxnard, and police say they still have no suspect information and do not yet know a motive for the shooting. Officers found the teen suffering from non-life-threatening wounds and he was transported to a local hospital.
Dispatchers sent Oxnard Police Department officers, Oxnard Fire Department crews, and Gold Coast Paramedics to the scene at 9:06 p.m. Wednesday after multiple 911 callers reported a gunshot victim lying in the street, according to KEYT. In a news release, the Oxnard Police Department confirmed officers located the wounded teen in the 2600 block of Wagon Wheel Road and said the case has been handed to the department's Violent Crimes Unit.
No Suspect Description, No Clear Motive
As of the department's release, investigators had no further information available and no suspect description to share. Detective Sergeant Scott Coe is handling the case and can be reached at 805-486-6211 or by email at [email protected], per the same release. The department is asking anyone with information to come forward, noting that anonymous tipsters can provide valuable leads even without stepping forward publicly.
Tips can be submitted to Ventura County Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-8477, or through the Ventura County Crime Stoppers website, which accepts tips by text or email. Crime Stoppers offers cash rewards of up to $1,000 for anonymous tips that lead to an arrest and criminal filing in felony cases, according to Ventura County Sheriff's Office. The Oxnard Police Department website also allows residents to report suspicious activity directly.
A Block With a Violent History
Wednesday's shooting was not the first act of gun violence on that stretch of Wagon Wheel Road. The same block was the site of a daytime shooting on October 29, 2021, when a man was shot multiple times near a vehicle at 11:22 a.m. and taken to Ventura County Medical Center, according to footage cited by Safety for Citizens.
The block sits within The Village, a 64-acre master-planned redevelopment in northern Oxnard built on a former 1950s roadside commercial site and now home to roughly 1,500 residential units and more than 50,000 square feet of retail and park space near Highway 101, as detailed by LA YIMBY. The surrounding Wagon Wheel community also includes the 119-unit Wagon Wheel Family Apartments, affordable housing built after a decade-long municipal settlement aimed at protecting low-income residents from displacement, per the Cabrillo Economic Development Corporation.
Part of a Broader Pattern for Oxnard's Violent Crimes Unit
The Violent Crimes Unit that inherited this case is the department's specialized branch for major non-fatal shootings, felonious assaults, and complex violent crime investigations. The unit has handled several recent cases involving young shooting victims, including a Christmas Day shooting that critically injured a 17-year-old and led to the January arrest of a 24-year-old suspect on attempted murder charges, as previously reported by Hoodline. In April 2025, the unit also coordinated multi-agency SWAT search warrants to arrest four people, including three juveniles, connected to a gang-related shooting that wounded three young men at Southwinds Park.
Countywide, the picture is somewhat more encouraging: 2025 crime statistics released by the Ventura County Sheriff's Office in February showed traditional violent and property crimes against persons across county patrol areas dropped 4 percent year-over-year, falling from 8,631 reported offenses in 2024 to 8,285 in 2025, according to edhat. Still, Wednesday's shooting shows that non-fatal gun violence involving teenagers remains an active concern for investigators in Oxnard.
What Happens If a Suspect Is Identified
Should investigators identify and arrest a suspect, California law treats assault with a firearm as a wobbler offense under Penal Code Section 245(a)(2), meaning it can be charged as a felony punishable by two, three, or four years in state prison, or as a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail, along with fines of up to $10,000, according to FindLaw. For now, the investigation remains ongoing, with no suspect in custody and no motive confirmed.
