PUBLIC ASKED TO HELP SOLVE FATAL SHOOTING.

Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer

The Ventura County Sheriff's Department is asking the public for help in its investigation of a man who was found shot to death on the Pacific Coast Highway late Monday.

About 11 p.m., two people driving north on PCH near Deer Creek Road spotted a man lying on the mountain side of the road about two miles east of Sycamore Cove, said Capt. Keith Parks.

One of the motorists called the California Highway Patrol from a cellular phone because he thought the man had been hit by a vehicle, Parks said.

``They initially thought it was a traffic accident, that he had been hit,'' he said.

When rescue workers arrived, they discovered that the man had been shot once in the chest. The victim was airlifted to St. John's Medical Center in Oxnard, where he was pronounced dead at 12:20 a.m.

Officials believe they have identified the man, but have not notified his relatives. Officials do not know whether the man was killed on the roadside, or whether he was shot somewhere else and dumped on the road.

Sheriff's Department investigators ask that anyone who was in the area of PCH and Deer Creek Road on Monday between 9:30 and 11 p.m. and saw any suspicious activity to contact Sgt. Bob Young at [phone] or Detective Danny Thompson at [phone] or [phone].