Deputy Shoots, Kills Man Who Held Woman Hostage in Home

An Orange County sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a man at an East Tustin home Wednesday, returning the shotgun fire of the armed intruder, authorities said.

Beatrice Valadez was in the home when the shoot-out erupted. She had been awakened by the intruder and led around the house with a sawed-off shotgun pointed at her head. She said that during the shoot-out, in which deputies fired service revolvers, she was wounded four times in the abdomen by shotgun pellets.

“I’m so grateful (to the deputies),” Valadez said. “You better believe it. They got there just in time.”

Husband Away

Her son Anthony Espinoza, 10, slept through the ordeal. Her daughter Mona, 16, called police from the home and then escaped, apparently unnoticed. Her husband, Gilbert Valadez, was away on business.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the shooting, generally a matter of routine and done at the request of police agencies.

The East Tustin shooting followed by one day a Board of Supervisors decision that the district attorney investigate all deputy-involved deaths to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest in Brad Gates’ dual role as sheriff and coroner. As sheriff, Gates is in charge of deputies and the jail; as coroner, he is also in charge of investigating all deaths in Orange County. The board decided Tuesday that Gates should keep both jobs.

Deputies Summoned

At least three deputies were summoned to the home at 18912 Silver Maple Way by Mona Espinoza, who called authorities from a phone in her room “because there was a man in the house that shouldn’t be there,” said Sheriff’s Lt. Dick Olson. He said the girl managed to sneak out of the Spanish-style house and met deputies in her front yard.

When two deputies entered the home about 5:30 a.m., “they were met with a shotgun blast,” but neither was wounded, Olson said. He said one of the deputies returned fire, striking the man.

Authorities identified the intruder as Charles Ventle, 41, for whom no current address was known. Ventle was dead on arrival at Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, Olson said.

Neither Olson nor Maury Evans--the deputy district attorney in charge of the special assignment unit that investigates officer-involved shootings--would say Wednesday how many rounds were fired or how many times Ventle was wounded.

Neither agency would release the deputies’ names or details of how the shooting occurred.

A few hours after the shooting, Valadez and her family filled in the blanks as they tried to recover from the morning of terror at the home, seemingly made burglar-proof by protective iron bars on the windows and gates facing the front yard.

“He had a beard and jeans,” Valadez said. “He woke me up . . . . He put a gun to my head and said, ‘Get up.’ I thought I was dreaming.” She said she did not know the intruder and had never seen him before. For the next half hour to 45 minutes, Valadez said, Ventle ransacked the house.

“I didn’t know what he was looking for,” she said.

Meanwhile, unknown to her mother, Mona had apparently heard voices and frantically called her boyfriend, who said he instructed her to call the police immediately. Five minutes later, said 17-year-old Jeff Hanegan, Mona called back. “She said her mother was shot.”

‘Shots Started Happening’

Valadez’s 24-year-old brother, Adam Ortiz of Garden Grove, who sometimes stays at the home, said his sister told him she was walked at gunpoint down the hall toward the family’s attached garage, part of which has been converted to a den and office.

“She went to a closet in the den . . . to open a safe,” Ortiz said. “I guess there was money in there . . . .”

Valadez picked up the story: “I was bending down, opening the safe, then all these shots started happening and I thought he was shooting my children. He shot first, to the officers . . . . It was like (Sylvester) Stallone (in the movie) ‘First Blood,’ ” she said.

The intruder fired at the officers, turned to run out a garage door and was shot by the deputy, the family said.

“The Lord had mercy on me,” said Valadez, “and the Lord loved me.”