VPD Swat team converged on Motel6 believing that suspect was staying there. Photo by Cindy Summers.
On Thursday, Dec. 17, at 8:30 a.m., the Ventura Police Department received a 911 call from a 20 year-old female at a residence in the 1600 block of Tapir Circle in East Ventura at the Todd Ranch Condominiums. The female told 911 that she had just been shot. Officers arrived and found the female outside the residence, suffering from multiple life-threatening gunshot wounds. The female was immediately transported to VCMC and was admitted into surgery.
Inside the residence, officers found 47 year-old Douglas Blasher, of Ventura deceased from gunshot wounds. They also found a 20-year old female and a 16 month old child inside who were un-injured.
The female shooting victim and the suspect, Brandon Ellis, had been in a previous relationship, but were not living together at the time of the shooting. She did not live at the location of the shooting. The unnamed female is currently at the hospital in serious, but stable condition.
Ellis has a police record and has spent time in prison.
On Friday, Dec.18, Ventura Police, thought that Brandon Ellis might be in a room at the Motel 6 on Harbor Blvd. Eyewitness Cindy Summers told the Breeze, “At approximately 6:30am Ventura Police SWAT Team converged on Motel 6 and set off a flash bomb in an attempt to capture the murder suspect believed to be in a room on the 2nd floor. They shot out the windows from around the corner and a second team approached from the opposite side to enter the room, but unfortunately the room was empty.”
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Brandon Ellis captured in Rosarito, Mexico.
The good news is that on Dec.19, the Ventura Police Department’s Major Crimes Division received information that the suspect, was seen at a location in Rosarito, Mexico. Ventura PD Detectives requested the assistance of the FBI and the US Marshals Service and Ellis was located at a bar in Rosarito and was taken into custody without incident.
Ellis has been booked into the Ventura County Jail for murder and attempted murder.
