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Via Mail Tribune
A White City man whose home was hit with a bullet during a drive-by shooting Saturday says the best way to fight fire is with fire.
Tucker Campagna, a 35-year-old former Marine, said he has been patrolling his Avenue H neighborhood with a high-capacity, magazine-fed AR15-style rifle and .45-caliber handgun strapped to his hip for a few hours each evening since Sunday, waiting and watching.
A pair of his neighbors have joined in on the armed community watch, he said, which will carry on until the residents are confident in the safety of their neighborhood on the northern outskirts of White City.
Jackson County Sheriff’s Department and Medford Area Drug and Gang Enforcement detectives are investigating the drive-by shooting, which sent the echo of gunfire across the neighborhood just before 9 p.m. Saturday but injured no one.
Sheriff’s Sgt. Nathan Sickler said investigators have recovered several 9 mm bullet casings but declined to reveal how many, citing the ongoing investigation.
He said police have been receiving tips related to the shooting.
The vehicle involved is described as a older-model, red Honda sedan, which Campagna said he could identify.
Sickler said police have not determined why the drive-by occurred, though the neighborhood has been plagued with gang activity.
“We don’t know if this was just a random act or if there were specific gang ties to this shooting yet,” Sickler said. “It’s really not safe to assume anything at this point.”
The neighborhood surrounding the intersection of Atlantic Avenue and Avenue H, where the drive-by shooting took place, is a mix of newly developed houses and aging trailer homes.
One residence near the intersection, a manufactured home in the 3800 block of Avenue H, was the target of a drive-by shooting in July 2009, Sickler said.
Two known Norteños gang members used to live in the home, but have since moved out, Sickler said. A few weeks before the 2009 shooting, the neighborhood was the scene of suspected gang violence when a group of teens threatened to beat two boys with a baseball bat. The group dispersed after the boys’ father fired a shot into the air, officials said at the time.
“It’s been pretty quiet since then,” Campagna said, who has lived in the neighborhood for just over six years. “I know that a former gang member was living there and got busted.”
According to Jackson County property data, the owner of the home is Thomas Balero, whose sons were affiliated with the Norteños gang, Sickler said. Oregon Judicial Department records show 24-year-old Romauldo Balero faced criminal charges of eluding police, tampering with evidence and theft while he lived in the home in 2008 and 2010.
It doesn’t appear that Thomas Balero’s home was hit with any bullets, Sickler said. Nearby residents, including Campagna, said they were glad and described Balero as a nice man.
Attempts to reach Thomas Balero were unsuccessful. Gates leading into Balero’s driveway were closed Tuesday and Wednesday.