A 21-year-old man was shot and rushed to the hospital Tuesday night after being gunned down near a Newhall Street growing increasingly more infamous for the number of gun calls reported there.
The man, whose identity has not been disclosed by authorities, was reportedly shot in the back on the 21400 block of Grape Lily Circle, near Valle del Oro, about 8:50 p.m. Tuesday.
“A 21-year-old male suffered a gunshot wound to the back,” Shirley Miller, spokeswoman for the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station told The Signal Wednesday. “He is expected to survive.”
Lt. Rob Hahnlein of the SCV Sheriff’s Station told The Signal Tuesday night that a man had been struck and was injured after a shooting near Valle Del Oro in Newhall Tuesday evening.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department received a call from the Sheriff’s Department moments later requesting medical aid for a male patient.
Paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department were dispatched to the same location on Grape Lily Circle for reports of a gunshot victim.
“This came in as a gunshot wound,” L.A. County Fire Department Spokeswoman Vanessa Lozano said.
Paramedics responding to the call had to wait until deputies ensured that it was safe for emergency crews to enter the shooting scene.
“Once they were cleared to enter, they treated one patient and transported him to the hospital,” Lozano said.
Victim survived
There was no indication Wednesday that the young man died as a result of his injuries, as was reported on social media.
According to Assistant Captain Ed Winter of the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner-Coroner, the coroner received no report of a gunshot victim having died in the Santa Clarita Valley.
As well, a check with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau also showed no report received by the bureau for a fatal gunshot in the SCV.
Similar shooting
Detective Q. Rodriguez, who is still investigating a similar shooting that happened almost a year ago in the same area, told The Signal Wednesday that he would have been notified if someone had died of a gunshot wound Tuesday.
Rodriguez is investigating the murder of 27-year-old Steven Ryan Valenzuela-Hughes who died after he was shot in the back on Bottletree Lane, near the intersection of Valle Del Oro and Dockweiler Drive.
Valenzuela-Hughes was shot at 7:54 p.m. on April 3, 2017, according to records maintained by the Los Angeles County Department of Medical-Examiner Coroner.
Paramedics with the Los Angeles County Fire Department treated him on the street and then rushed him to Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital, where he later died of his injuries at 8:31 p.m.
Homicide detectives, who were called to the shooting scene at 9:45 p.m. that night, suspected they were dealing with a gang slaying.
Similarities
Asked Wednesday, if detectives are exploring the possibility Tuesday’s shooting may be related to the gunshot murder of Valenzuela-Hughes given their similarities, Rodriguez said it depends.
“If someone there (detective) sees some similarities such as the same calibre of weapon, then obviously we would have that compared to our case,” he said.
Rodriguez said he and his team are “working some leads” in the Valenzuela-Hughes investigation.
Concerned residents
Tuesday night’s shooting was the latest in a series of gun calls that have jarred many residents who live in the area.
Citizens watched as local sheriff’s deputies entered a second-floor apartment on Grape Lily Circle and exited the apartment carrying paper bags.
Comments posted on social media at the time of the shooting Tuesday included concerns about the safety of the area.
One woman, who lives near Valle del Oro, told The Signal Wednesday: “I live right off Dockweiler and Valle del Oro. I hear helicopters so often I don’t really bother looking out anymore.
“This area is getting so awful,” she said.
Gunshot victims
In November, a SCV Sheriff’s Station deputy was shot in the neck and came within “an inch” of dying during gunfire exchanged near Valle del Oro.
The shooting which ended with two people shot—the deputy and a suspected gunman—happened shortly after 10 p.m. on Nov. 27, 2017, after deputies responded to an “assault with a deadly weapon call” on the 21300 block of Bottletree Lane near Valle del Oro.
The wounded deputy recovered from his injury.
In a separate and unrelated case last month, a South Gate man was sentenced to 21 years in state prison after pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter in the shooting death of 21-year-old Newhall resident Rudy Gonzalez.
“Joseph Wayne Monroy pleaded guilty … to voluntary manslaughter and admitted personal use of a gun in a plea agreement,” Paul Eakins, spokesman for the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office told The Signal last month.
Monroy was arrested on suspicion of gunning down Rudy Gonzalez on Jan. 21, 2016, outside the apartment building in Newhall where he lived. The building is on Costa Brava near Valle Del Oro.
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