2 Injured by Shotgun Blast Believed Fired From Boat

Two Ventura County men were hit by a shotgun blast, possibly fired through a drainage channel from a boat on Westlake, as they worked Wednesday at a housing construction site in an exclusive Westlake Village neighborhood, authorities said.

Investigators for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said late Wednesday that they have no suspects and know of no motive for the shooting.

The two men, Jesse Corralejo, 22, of Oxnard, and Howard Wortman, 42, of Camarillo, were treated for superficial pellet wounds at Westlake Community Hospital and released, Deputy Michael Koch said. Corralejo was wounded in the back and Wortman in the face and right arm, Koch said.

Area Searched for Suspects

Shortly after the 4 p.m. shooting, Los Angeles and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies searched the lake in boats and nearby streets in squad cars for suspects. The lake straddles the border between Westlake Village in Los Angeles County and Thousand Oaks in Ventura County.

Residents of the community, which is built around the lake, halted their late-afternoon jogging to watch the unusual cluster of squad cars on Triunfo Canyon Road.

Koch said the blast appeared to have been fired through a drainage channel from the lake, which runs under Triunfo Canyon Road near Bowsprit Circle. It struck the two men as they stood on the concrete floor of the dry channel, he said.

John Villegas, a foreman for the Blois Construction Co. crew, said he and two other workers heard the shot but were standing above the channel and could not see anyone firing.

The group ran across the street, borrowed a resident’s boat and set out to search for the gunman, he said. But two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies stopped the group with guns drawn, believing that they were suspects, Villegas said.

“I heard over the radio that the suspects had just been captured. It took 15 minutes to straighten out. They were just doing their job,” Villegas said.