Ojai Man, 24, Shot and Critically Wounded in Scuffle With Deputy

A 24-year-old Ojai man was shot and critically wounded Friday during a scuffle with a sheriff’s deputy who was trying to arrest him after he failed to pull over for a traffic stop, investigators said.

Gary Ivan Davidson was shot once in the upper chest and was listed in critical condition late Friday after surgery at Ojai Valley Community Hospital.

The shooting occurred about 8:20 a.m. after Deputy Janice Kennedy tried to stop Davidson near Encino Drive and Ventura Avenue near Oak View, Sheriff’s Lt. Kathy Kemp said. Kemp said she did not know what first prompted Kennedy to try to stop Davidson’s older gray car.

Davidson refused to pull over and raced up winding Encino Drive, his tires squealing on the road’s sharp curves, according to Kemp and residents of the street. Near the crest of the hill, Davidson abandoned his car in the middle of the road and fled into woods, Kemp said. The car continued rolling and crashed into a wooden fence.

Kennedy began chasing Davidson on foot but lost sight of the suspect while communicating on the radio for help. Soon afterward, five deputies arrived to assist in the search.

As Davidson slipped down the wooded slope, Kennedy caught up with him and grappled with the suspect when he tried to take her gun away, Kemp said. During the struggle, Kennedy’s 9mm semiautomatic pistol went off, striking Davidson.

The shooting occurred a quarter of a mile to a half-mile down the wooded hill from where Davidson abandoned his car, just above Ventura Avenue.

Sarah Hoffman, 35, said she was inside her Encino Drive home when she heard the squealing of tires and saw a black-and-white patrol car speed by. A few minutes later, she saw several deputies running into the grove of oaks two houses from hers.

“I heard them yelling: ‘Where? Where? Where?’ ” she said.

Her neighbor, Diane Glass, 39, said she also saw the chase but didn’t notice the deputies running until the quarter horse in her back yard became spooked.

Scott Hatcher, 22, and Dwayne Bounds, 51, said they were outside Bounds’ farm-equipment business when they saw deputies running along the tree line.

Hatcher said he saw a deputy raise a gun and walk into the brush as another deputy ran up the hill.

“Then I just heard the shot and I heard someone yell,” he said.

Bounds said he heard the deputy with the raised gun yell “Stop!” or “Hold it!”

“The next thing we heard was just a bang, a gunshot,” Bounds said.

Neither Bounds nor Hatcher saw the suspect until he was carried down the hill on a stretcher by county firefighters and ambulance crew members.

The area was roped off after the shooting as detectives and uniformed officers swarmed to the scene and a sheriff’s helicopter circled overhead.

Kennedy was placed on administrative leave, as required by department policy for officer-involved shootings. She started with the department in 1986 as a technician and became a deputy in 1988. In recent years she has been an officer patrolling the Ojai area and since last fall has worked in the department’s DARE anti-drug program.

Although Kemp did not know Kennedy’s reason for trying to stop Davidson, she said he was wanted for four misdemeanor warrants with a total bail of $25,000. Two stemmed from charges he was under the influence of drugs, one was issued in a hit-and-run case, and the fourth stemmed from a contempt-of-court citation in a domestic violence case, authorities said.

Representatives of the Ventura County district attorney’s office were notified of the shooting but did not go to the scene to investigate because they were not asked to do so by the Sheriff’s Department, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ron Janes said.

Kemp said the Sheriff’s Department did not request help from the district attorney’s office because the shooting occurred in the open and there were no legal questions, such as the need for a search warrant.

The case remains under investigation.