Community Works to Rebuild After Deadly Shooting of 15-Year Old Girl in Oceanside

It's been one month since a 15-year-old girl was gunned down at an Oceanside Park. While detectives continue to investigate who is responsible, neighborhood youth programs work to rebuild a community all too familiar to violent tragedies.

The Oceanside Reach project is one such program and its building stands feet away from where Anabell Flores was shot and killed on September 3.

“You lose a lot of sleep working at this job,” program supervisor Salvador Roman said thinking back on the incident. “Because it’s not just something that happened at work. You take it home, you take it personal. And it’s just a loss for you and it's a loss for the whole community.”

Roman says they work with kids from 6th grade all the way up to 12th grade, helping them with things like school. But most importantly, the program focuses on preventing drug use, teen pregnancy, violence and gang activity.

“Just something to do on my free time to keep me off the streets,” high school student Anthony Barba said.

Just after 2:30 a.m. on September 3, officers made a heart-wrenching discovery on the playground at Joe Balderama park—Flores lying on her back with at least one gunshot wound.

“It made me feel sad because someone from the same neighborhood as me,” Barba said. “It just happened to them. Like just know a different path leads to a different ending.”

Barba, 15, grew up in a broken home without a father. Like many other kids in his neighborhood, he didn't know where his life was headed before he got involved in the Reach program.

“It just kind of opened my eyes to reality and what the dangers are. If I wasn't coming here you would probably see me out on the street or hanging out with different people. But now that I’m here it gives me something to do,” he told NBC 7.

“They look up to us,” Roman said, referring to the teenagers in the program. “They see us as a mother, a father, brother, sister, someone they can look up to. And that's huge. That's important for our youth.”

Roman says they can’t force teens to join because it’s a drop-in center.

“All we can do is let them know anytime they need help, they can come in.”

Now, one month after Flores’ death, the memories of it and other tragic deaths in their neighborhood linger in the minds and hearts of staff and kids.

“It was something hard for them to kind of bear,” Ramon said.

He told NBC 7 that he and students would often see Flores hanging out at the park where she died.

“They didn't even know how to tell me. They couldn't even speak about it. They were so in shock because she was so young and she was someone that was there with them yesterday.”

Still, kids like Barba have hoped for change and a better life. Barba’s hard work has already paid off earning him a scholarship to help him finish high school and continue his education at college

“It gives me hope. It’s light at the end of the tunnel,” Barba said. “It’s what separates me from everything else. Just helps me rise above.”

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