2 Held After Deputy Is Hit by Fleeing Auto

Two people in a stolen car were arrested Monday after one of them tried to run over a sheriff’s deputy in a Thousand Oaks parking lot, authorities said.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Deputy Bill Irby was treated for minor injuries at Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks after the 1 p.m. incident, said hospital spokeswoman Helen Mitchell. He was released from the hospital later in the day, she said.

Irby had stopped the car in the parking lot of The Oaks mall and was speaking with the driver outside the vehicle when the passenger grabbed the wheel and backed into the deputy, Sheriff’s Sgt. Will Howe said. The driver got back into the car and drove south on the northbound on-ramp from Lynn Road to the Ventura Freeway, Howe said.

While on the on-ramp, the car went out of control and rolled over, injuring the passenger, Rose Dominguez, who was taken into custody and treated for minor injuries at Los Robles Regional Medical Center. The driver, Carlos Gonzales Perez, attempted to flee, but deputies found him 30 minutes later in a shack in a nearby residential area, Howe said.

Authorities later learned that the car had been stolen in the Los Angeles area. Howe said both suspects, whose ages and hometowns were unknown, were arrested on suspicion of assault on a peace officer, possession of a stolen vehicle and hit and run.