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Daniel Camarillo and Ruby Vega R.I.P.
Shooting kills two cousins --> -->--> -->--> -->
By Matthew Artz, STAFF WRITER --> -->--> -->--> -->
Article Last Updated: 12/25/2006 08:39:04 AM PST
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COUSINS DANIEL CAMARILLO (left) of Union City and Ruby Vega of Hayward were killed early Saturday outside a bar in San Leandro.
UNION CITY — The only thing Daniel Camarillo didn't have patience for was violence, his siblings said.
So when two of his female cousins rushed outside a San Leandro nightclub late Friday night trying to prevent a fight, Camarillo, a 23-year-old after-school instructor from Union City, followed them outside.
"We told (one of the combatants) to just let it go," said Camarillo's cousin, Corina Ornelas.
But their pleas fell on deaf ears.
Within minutes, at about 12:45 a.m., one of the men believed to be embroiled in the argument allegedly started firing a semiautomatic handgun from the sidewalk towards a group of about 15 to 20 people outside the Lucky Star Lounge at 2090 Doolittle Drive.
Eight people were hit, two fatally: Camarillo and his cousin, Ruby Vega, 26, of Hayward.
As of Sunday evening, San Leandro police had made no arrests in the shooting. Police said they are looking for an Asian man in his 20s about 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing 140 pounds, as the possible gunman.
The six people injured, which included two of Camarillo's friends, were all expected to survive, San Leandro Police Lt. Marc Decoulode said.
A Hayward resident, Vega worked as a receptionist for a Union City furniture store, her sister said. Erika Vega said her sister also was an artist who loved to draw and whose fashion sense included ripped jeans and Converse All-Star sneakers. Camarillo, a 2001 graduate of Logan High School, was a senior at California State University, East Bay, majoring in accounting. For the past several years he had worked part-time for Union City as an after-school recreation leader at Delaine Eastin Elementary School.
Camarillo also taught basketball at the Tri-City Chinese School and dance at a studio in Oakland.
"He loved working with kids," said his girlfriend of four years, Alexandra Anderson, who also works at Delaine Eastin.
Siblings Fabiola Camarillo, left, and Xavier Camarillo grieve over the death of their brother, Daniel Camarillo, 23, of Union City and their cousin, Ruby Vega, 26, of Hayward, who both were shot outside a bar in San Leandro early Saturday morning. (Yuki Saito-Miller/The Fremont Argus)
Tony Acosta, Union City's deputy city manager called Camarillo part of the Union City family. "This is not going to be easy to get over," he said.
Camarillo, the third of five siblings, went to the San Leandro nightclub Friday to celebrate his sister Fabiola's 28th birthday.
Ornelas said they were all dancing inside when she looked out the window and saw someone get thrown to the ground outside.
They left the bar to find a man that Ornelas and Vega had briefly chatted with inside the club confronting a group of about five Asian males, Ornelas said.
As the Asian males backtracked to the parking lot, Camarillo and his cousins urged the other man to head back inside the bar, Ornelas said.
Instead, he looped around toward the parking lot, and within moments, Ornelas said, shots rang out.
Vega was hit in the back of the head and died almost instantly. Camarillo was struck in the torso and staggered back inside the club before collapsing beside the bar, Fabiola Camarillo said.
"We did CPR for about 20 minutes," she added. "His girlfriend was telling him 'I love you.' I said, 'Stay with me, stay with me.'"
Camarillo was declared dead at the scene, Fabiola said.
The family held a joint burial for Vega and Camarillo, who they described as polar opposites. "Ruby was loud and fun. Danny was always so calm and relaxed," said his sister, Angelina Camarillo.
The siblings are donating Camarillo's Christmas present, a new car stereo, to charity.
"All he wanted for Christmas was money so he could pay for school, but we wanted him to have a real gift too," said Camarillo's brother Xavier.
Xavier Camarillo said he wanted his brother's killer to face death, while his other siblings seemed satisfied with a life sentence.
"I'm going to make it to every court hearing," said Angelina, a Houston-based recording artist. "I want to look the people responsible in the face."
Staff writer Alejandro Alfonso contributed to this report. Staff writer Matthew Artz can be reached at (510) 353-7003 or martz@angnewspapers.com.
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