VENTURA : Man Who Died Fleeing Police Is Identified

Authorities Saturday said they have identified a Ventura man who died after he ran from police into the ocean and drowned near the Ventura Pier.

Police were seeking the public’s help in finding relatives of Stephen Richard Webb, 36, whose body was recovered Thursday afternoon, several hours after a pre-dawn foot chase near the Ventura Promenade.

Craig Stevens, senior deputy coroner, said authorities were able to identify Webb with the help of workers at Project Understanding. Police said Webb was homeless and occasionally sought help at the social services agency.

Webb was white, with brown hair and a reddish mustache, weighed 150 to 160 pounds and was 5 feet, 9 inches tall, Stevens said.

According to authorities, Webb died early Thursday after a Ventura police officer, suspecting Webb to be a prowler, chased him from the parking structure of the Country Inn on South Chestnut Street in Ventura to the ocean.

Webb was a suspect in a burglary at a Ventura apartment complex that occurred about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday, police said. At 3:12 a.m. Thursday, a prowler was reported in the parking structure of the hotel, situated across the street from the inn.

Responding to the prowler call, police tried to talk to the man but he darted across the California Street overpass and ran toward the ocean, police said.

After a daylong search that involved a Coast Guard helicopter and two law enforcement vessels, a group of divers found Webb’s body near the Ventura Pier on Thursday afternoon, police said.

On Saturday, authorities said the body recovered closely resembles the description of the prowler given by officers and the burglary victim.

Anyone with information about the victim’s family should call the coroner’s office at 652-5750.