A 31-year-old Santa Paula woman was arrested Friday night about seven hours after another Santa Paula woman was found shot to death in a park there, police said.

Police identified the homicide suspect as Yajaira Dominguez aka Yajaira Rosales.

Dominguez was taken into custody at a home along the 500 block of Casabella Court about 8 p.m. after police convinced her to give herself up.

Lt. Ish Cordero said police received a call about 1 p.m. reporting that a woman was dead in Mill Park. At the scene, police found the woman's body between an oak tree and a picnic table on the west side of the small, rectangular park in the 700 block of Santa Paula/Ojai Road. The woman, identified by police as Ashley Calanche, 21, of Santa Paula, had been shot in the head, police said.

Police had yet to establish a motive.

"The investigation is continuing," police said in a statement Friday night.

Police also had yet to find the firearm used to kill Calanche.

Police said witnesses told them two females were seen fleeing the park after Calanche was fatally shot.

Police searched an apartment complex near Mill Park, where one of the females was found, police said. She later was found to be a witness to the shooting, police said.

Police said they later went to Casabella Court, where another witness may have lived. Police said as they approached the home, they saw that person driving away. When police questioned the person, they were told that the suspect Dominguez had arrived at the home in tears. Police said the person also told them they did not know a homicide had taken place. The person told them Dominguez was still in the home, located a couple of miles from Mill Park.

Neighbors said when police first arrived, they used a loudspeaker to address Dominguez by name, asking her to come out. When that did not happen, at least one police dog was sent in, the neighbors said.

Cordero said officers made a deal during negotiations with Dominguez that if she surrendered, she would be allowed to talk to her boyfriend before being booked into jail.

At the home, a man police identified as Dominguez's boyfriend waited outside. An officer emerged and handed him a purse at about 7:15 p.m.

At 7:38, a firetruck and ambulance arrived at the house. Outside the home, paramedics examined a woman who was seen limping. She was led away in handcuffs about 8 p.m.

The house was near the end of a cul-de-sac in a tract housing development of tile-roofed stucco homes that appeared to have been built in the early 1990s.

Police Chief Steve McLean said that in his many years in law enforcement, the case was one of the few instances he's seen in which a homicide victim and suspect were both women.

After the body was discovered at the park in the afternoon, crime-scene tape surrounded an oak tree there that had concrete picnic tables around it. Near the site of the body were some basketball courts. On the other side of the park was a playground with slides. The park is surrounded by middle-class homes.

Cordero said police had been called to the park before.

It's on a list of city parks slated to get police surveillance cameras. Even before Friday's incident, police were looking for appropriate sites there to place cameras, Cordero said. Had the cameras been in place, "this would have helped a lot in the investigation," he said.

The Santa Paula City Council on Sept. 16 approved spending up to $100,000 on high-resolution security cameras for city parks to help police monitor crime and other troubles. The city may buy up to 15 cameras.

"The mere presence of video surveillance cameras can act as a powerful crime deterrent," said a report to the council. "Individuals are less likely to commit a crime if they suspect they are being monitored."

Cordero said in August that the city had seen a noticeable increase in homicides this year.

The city has averaged one or two homicides per year in recent times. Friday's slaying was at least the fifth one this year for the city.

A woman was found dead in July just a block from Mill Park. Angela Bryant, 33, was shot July 17 in the 600 block of Ojai Road. Andres Rene Rodriguez, of Oxnard, was later arrested in connection with the death.

Police said they did not believe the two deaths were connected.

In the other three Santa Paula slayings this year, the victims were men.

Ulises Virto was shot dead May 27 in Santa Paula in what appeared to be a gang-related shooting, police said. On June 28, Joseph Arellano was killed in what police believed was another gang-related incident. Ramon Carrillo was found Aug. 23 suffering from fatal gunshot wounds in a friend's driveway. It was unclear whether Carrillo's slaying was gang-related, but he was a gang member, authorities said.

McLean has made anti-gang efforts a priority, creating a gang-enforcement team during his first week on the job in early July.

"We will have zero tolerance for gang members," he said.