A juvenile was shot multiple times while hanging around a neighborhood park in Simi Valley during the early morning hours Monday.

The shooting was reported shortly before 2:30 a.m. at Frontier Park located at 2165 Elizondo St.

Arriving officers found the minor, described only as a male, with a gunshot wound to his chest and another to his trachea, the Simi Valley Police Department stated in a news release.

The minor was taken to a local trauma center to undergo surgery, the Police Department stated.

Investigators believe the victim was involved in a confrontation between two groups when someone pulled out a gun and shot him.

Several people wearing dark-colored hoodie sweatshirts were seen running from the park after the shooting, police said.

The small community park is equipped with a children’s playground and access to the Arroyo Simi Bike Patch.

Anyone with information regarding the shooting was asked to call the Police Department at 805-583-6950.

Texas death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales was executed by lethal injection Wednesday, despite numerous appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, for the 2001 murder and rape of a teenage woman.

Gonzales was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. following a chemical injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His execution comes after he admitted to fatally shooting 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, a southwest Texas woman whose remains were found nearly two years after she vanished in 2001.

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In a statement released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Gonzales repeatedly apologized to the victim’s family from the execution chamber.

“I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt, what I took away that I cannot give back. I hope this apology is enough,” he said.

“I never stopped praying that you would forgive me and that one day I would have this opportunity to apologize. I owe all of you my life and I hope one day you will forgive me,” he added.

The U.S flag and the Texas State flag fly over the Texas State Capitol (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)

Townsend, who would have turned 41 this year, was kidnapped from her home in January 2001 and sexually assaulted by Gonzales before he murdered her.

Her body wasn’t found until October 2002, when Gonzales led authorities to her remains in southwest Texas after he had received two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman.

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“We have finally witnessed justice being served,” Townsend’s brother, David, said after watching the execution. “This day marks the end of a long and painful journey for our family. For over two decades, we have endured unimaginable pain and heartache.”

David said Gonzales’ death “provides us a little bit of peace. I do want to say we are not joyous, we are not happy. This is a very, very sad day for everyone all the way around.”

FILE – The execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Institution is shown as Security Institution Warden Randy Blades look on in Boise, Idaho on Oct. 20, 2011.  (AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner, File)

Gonzales’ attorneys, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann, previously made requests asking the board to change his death sentence to a lesser penalty.

“He has earnestly devoted himself to self-improvement, contemplation, and prayer, and has grown into a mature, peaceful, kind, loving, and deeply religious adult. He acknowledges his responsibility for his crimes and has sought to atone for them and to seek redemption through his actions,” Gonzales’ lawyers wrote in a request to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.

Earlier this month, a group of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and around the country asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution and grant clemency.

On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 against commuting Gonzales’ death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting him a six-month reprieve.

Gonzales’ execution was the second this year in Texas and the eighth in the U.S. 

On Thursday, Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Richard Rojem for the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of a 7-year-old girl.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

After a wave of violent incidents in Santa Monica, residents and city officials are expressing some serious concerns, with the city’s mayor asking for emergency funds, more police and state assistance.  

“There’s beautiful things about the city, but we’re losing it,” Christina Tullock, who lives on the Santa Monica-Venice border, said.

Tullock told KTLA’s Rachel Menitoff that she regularly sees one violent attack after another and believes the issues causing the problems are mental health and drug related.

“You can have as much enforcement as possible, but the cops can’t do anything until something happens,” she explained. “What I’d like is to see something preemptively happen, which is help people who are sick, help people who are on drugs.”

Still, as crowds flock to the Santa Monica Pier ahead of next weekend’s Fourth of July holiday, the city has been home to a string of violent attacks since the first of the year.  

Just this weekend, five men were arrested after a giant brawl broke out on the beach, leaving one person stabbed and another with a broken ankle. Both victims were hospitalized.  

Earlier in the week, 32-year-old Jawann Dwayne Garnett, who police say is homeless, was arrested after violent attacks on three female beachgoers. He has since been charged with attempted rape and attempted murder.  

On June 11, a 26-year-old man at Jameson’s Pub on Main Street in Santa Monica punched and killed the bar’s manager after he was one of several patrons asked to leave the establishment.  

Late in May, a 39-year-old man believed to be homeless was arrested after reportedly attacking a 73-year-old woman, leaving her with minor injuries. Bystanders also said the suspect had been seen trying to punch others in the area.  

Almost a week and a half before that attack, 29-year-old Larry Ameyal Cedeno was arrested after what appears to be a entirely unprovoked assault near Parking Structure 7 in the 1500 block of 4^th Street that left two people hospitalized with stab wounds, one who was listed in critical but stable condition.  

On May 16, a Venice resident who was jogging in the 2000 block of Ocean Front Walk in Santa Monica was violently dragged by the hair and pulled toward the restrooms. Police said 48-year-old Malcolm Ward, a parolee, intended to sexually assault the victim.  

He was arrested and has since been charged with attempted kidnapping and assault with the intent to commit rape.  

Some people who frequent Santa Monica, like Howard Zickefose, said it’s confusing and disconcerting to be out and about in the city and then suddenly caught up in a swarm of police activity.  

“We were having a wonderful time, returning from shopping at Trader Joes in the middle of the day yesterday and we were swarmed by police,” he said of Saturday’s beach brawl. “They were driving in every direction and there were helicopters flying.”  

Santa Monica resident Elizabeth Brown cautioned tourists in the area to stay aware of what and who is around them while visiting.  

“If you live in a really safe environment and you come here, you just need to be a little more acutely aware of your surroundings,” she explained.  

Santa Monica Mayor Phil Brock says the issues facing Santa Monica are happening across Los Angeles.

“Some of the same crime patterns, some of the same theft, some of the same behavior comes from unhinged homeless people who are on drugs or mentally ill,” he said. “It [also] comes from people who cross the border and say, ‘Hey, Santa Monica is lucrative, let’s make some of our money here.’”

Brock’s plan is to saturate business and residential areas with police officers in order to stop crimes before they happen, but said he needs funding to do that. He adds that he also needs help from the court system, the district attorney’s office and the state of California.

According to the mayor, though, the city council rejected his proposal to take a few million dollars from the city’s budget for emergency security use through the summer. That additional funding, he said, could go toward increasing patrols in the area and hopefully alleviate the concerns of people, like Matt Gotzka, on the boardwalk.

“You don’t want to hear about attempted stabbings and violence toward people on the beach,” Gotzka told KTLA. “You’re here trying to have a good time.”