Worker at Menifee nursery shot twice
By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer

Last modified Monday, April 9, 2007 10:55 PM PDT



A woman at the scene of a shooting at the De Luz Wholesale Nursery in Menifee on Monday morning cries after the victim was moved to an ambulance.



MENIFEE ---- A Menifee nursery worker was shot twice with a rifle Monday morning and authorities say the shooter is the former boyfriend of the victim's pregnant girlfriend.

The shooting happened about 9:15 a.m. at De Luz Wholesale Nursery on Leon Road, near Keller Road.

The 18-year-old was shot in the stomach and the leg, Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Bill DeLuna said. The victim, whom DeLuna did not identify, underwent surgery at a local hospital late Monday morning and his injuries do not appear to be life-threatening.


"He's alert and talking," DeLuna said of the man, who was taken away from the nursery by ambulance as concerned co-workers looked on.

Several of the workers, including a woman who witnessed the shooting and could be seen crying outside the small nursery nearly two hours later, declined to comment about what happened.

Investigators believe the reason for the shooting is jealousy over the girlfriend, who was brought to the shooting scene and then driven away by a sheriff's detective.

"The gunman came here with another man, words were exchanged and then shots were fired," DeLuna said at the crime scene.

The man investigators say fired the shots, 20-year-old Jesus Arreola Aguilar, walked up to the victim with a large-caliber rifle before the argument even started, authorities said.

After being shot, the victim tried to run to safety but fell to the ground a short distance away, DeLuna said. Aguilar followed him and fired more shots, the sergeant said.

Aguilar then fled with the unidentified second man in a pickup described as being a burgundy, early 1990s Toyota with a cracked windshield and no tailgate, authorities said.

Aguilar is described as about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, slender, with a shaved head and hazel eyes, investigators said. He typically wears a red baseball cap, blue jeans and white tennis shoes, according to witnesses.

San Diego police, as well as U.S. Border Patrol agents, were told to be on the lookout for Aguilar as investigators suspect he may be headed to Mexico where he is believed to have family.

Several locations in Southwest County where investigators thought Aguilar might be were checked Monday, but he was not found.

Investigators ask that anyone who may have any information about his whereabouts call the Southwest Sheriff's Station at (951) 696-3000.


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