VENTURA : 5 Arrested in SWAT Raid of 2 Houses

A police SWAT team raided two houses in a west Ventura neighborhood early Saturday, arresting five people in connection with repeated incidents of random gunfire that terrorized local residents, authorities said.

No one was injured in the series of shootings earlier this month, but a number of houses and cars were struck by bullets in the early morning of April 14 and 16, a Ventura Police Department spokeswoman said.

“It’s gotten so bad lately it’s almost an everyday occurrence,” said longtime resident Patricia Davis, who lives on Mission Street. “My next-door neighbor told me today that she was going to move out because the shooting is getting too close.”

Using search warrants in their 1:30 a.m. sweep, police confiscated two handguns and an undisclosed amount of narcotics from a house in the 100 block of West Harrison Avenue and the 100 block of West Mission Avenue, police said. The two streets are west of Ventura Avenue and run parallel to each other.

The bomb squad was summoned during the search of the Harrison Avenue house after police found a device that appeared to be a military explosive.

Davis said she heard what sounded like two explosions just before police arrived. But bomb experts determined that the device was inert.

The shootings were still under investigation and the names of the suspects had not been released late Saturday, the spokeswoman said.

Davis said she keeps a police scanner nearby, which makes her feel safer.

“I think other people are scared, though,” she said. “They’re really scared.”