CASITAS SPRINGS : Suspect Runs Naked From Police Custody

A Ventura man arrested Friday afternoon escaped from Ventura County Medical Center hours later and streaked naked through a residential neighborhood before police caught up with him, authorities said.

Stewart Wesley Reid, 33, was first apprehended in the Casitas Springs area after sheriff’s deputies received reports of a shooting, and found Reid hiding in the river bottom.

After a two-hour search along California 33 and of the nearby riverbed, deputies arrested Stewart 33, on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon after police dogs sniffed him out and bit him, police said. A gun was found near where he was hiding, Lt. Mike Gullon said.

A helicopter was also used in the search, which turned up no shooting victims. Investigators were at a loss to explain what occurred, and witnesses were reluctant to talk, Gullon said.

Reid was treated at the county hospital for dog bites. As he was being taken for X-rays, he bolted out a side door shortly before 7 p.m. and fled through the neighborhood near the hospital, police said. Startled neighbors told police he was hiding in a garage on Porter Lane near Emma Avenue, according to reports.