by Cindy Summers
Police reports are provided to us by the Ventura Police Department and are not the opinions of the Ventura Breeze. All suspects mentioned are assumed to be innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
Criminal Threats, Assault with a Firearm
On January 24, at approximately 2pm, the victim was at 10 W. Harbor Bl. (Ventura Fairgrounds) selling items as a vendor at the swap meet. The suspect, later identified as 29 year old Ventura resident Salvador Gutierrez, was also a swap meet vendor, asked the victim to meet out in the parking lot of the Fairgrounds. The victim agreed and met up with Gutierrez, the victim and Gutierrez got into an argument. Gutierrez pulled a handgun from his waistband and demanded money from the victim. He did not have any money to give Gutierrez, so Gutierrez told him he would collect the money later. Out of fear, the victim did not immediately report the incident to the police.
On January 31, the victim called the Ventura Police Department and reported the incident. VPD Detectives began investigating and identified Salvador Gutierrez as the suspect. On February 14, Gutierrez was arrested near his residence in the 200 Block of E. Warner St. During his arrest, Gutierrez was in possession of about one half ounce of suspected methamphetamine. Gutierrez was later booked at the Ventura County Jail for the above listed charges.
Structure Fire with Brush Involvement
On February 21, at approximately 2:45am, Ventura City Fire and Police Departments responded to a reported fire in the Santa Clara River area. Upon arrival of the Police Department, 3 tent homes in River Haven were found to be on fire with the fire spreading to the surrounding brush. There were reports of occupants that were unaccounted for.
Firefighters performed fire attack on the tent structures and initiated a search. Following extinguishment, a fatality was identified in one of the tent structures.
Three tents were destroyed and a fourth sustained damage from the fire.
Commercial Burglary
On February 21, at 7:30pm, the Ventura Police Command Center received a 911 call of a window smash to Cal Coast Motorsports where an unknown race male subject wearing a hooded sweatshirt broke through the window and made off with two dirt bike style motorcycles. The witness last saw the suspect fleeing north along a bike path pushing one of the dirt bikes.
Officers arrived on scene and began searching for the suspect and the missing property. They were able to locate a stolen dirt bike in the area of Cypress Point Lane and Telephone Rd, but were unable to locate the suspect or the additional stolen dirt bike.
The additional dirt bike style motorcycle that has not been located is a yellow 2018 child-size Suzuki DRZ 70.
Threats to “BHS” High School
On February 22 at 7:15pm, the Ventura Police Command Center received numerous calls reference a possible threat to “BHS” students via Snapchat. The Snapchat stated that the writer was going to bring an AR-15 to campus and threatened, “all BHS students prepare to see my wrath tomorrow”. While conducting the investigation it was discovered that the original threat came from Belen New Mexico just outside of Albuquerque.
Ventura Police spoke with Belen City Police who confirmed that on February 21, they investigated the Snapchat threat that was directed towards Belen High School “BHS”. Based on the threat they wrote a search warrant for the Snapchat account and were able to identify the IP address where the threat originated from. Their investigation revealed that a 16 year old student, who attended Belen High School, sent the Snapchat. Before the start of school Belen Police Officers contacted the 16 year old and took him into custody for the threats. During an interview with the juvenile, he admitted to making the threats via Snapchat. According to the Belen Police, Ventura is the 3rd California Agency to contact them today reference this incident.
Based on the investigation the Ventura Police Department has determined there is no credible threat to Buena High School students. Ventura Police and Ventura Unified School District officials are continuing to work together to ensure the safety of all students and faculty throughout the district. In an effort to remain vigilant the Ventura Police Department will have extra SRO’s at Buena High School.
