'Family was always a top priority': Camarillo man killed in Port Hueneme named, remembered
Authorities identified the 18-year-old Camarillo man who was shot and killed Sunday night in Port Hueneme.
Pedro Gomez Jr. was found dead east of Channel Islands Harbor, according to the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office. The cause and manner of death are pending, the agency said.
The Port Hueneme Police Department responded to a report of shots fired in the Anchor Avenue area at 11:55 p.m. Sunday. The crime is believed to have occurred in the Marina Village neighborhood near the intersection of Anchor Avenue and Marina Village Street, Scott Matalon, a police department spokesperson, said Monday.
As of Tuesday morning, police had no suspect in custody, but the investigation is ongoing, Matalon said.
Francisco Banuelos described his cousin, Gomez Jr., as being part of a close-knit family. He was the second of four children who live in Camarillo and grew up in the Oxnard area. Gomez Jr., who went by Peter, lived with his father and older sister while his younger siblings lived primarily with their mother.
Banuelos, 26, described himself as a mentor to Gomez Jr., who struggled in recent years but had found a passion for cars.
Gomez Jr., his father and three siblings had just spent the Fourth of July holiday with Banuelos and his family in Kansas City, Missouri. They had grown closer after about a week spent together and had flown out Thursday, Banuelos said
"Family was always a top priority especially when it came to his siblings," he said of his cousin.
Banuelos said the family believes Gomez Jr.'s death was a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time. As he understood the circumstances, his cousin had been giving friends a ride when the shooting took place.
Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call Supervising Detective Baltazar Tapia at 805-986-6619 or email him at btapia@cityofporthueneme.org.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Camarillo man shot dead in Port Hueneme identified
