Patient From Mental Ward Fatally Shot by Officer : Ventura: Authorities say the Santa Paula man repeatedly swung a 3-foot wooden club as they tried to calm him.

A Ventura police officer Sunday shot and killed a Santa Paula man who had walked away from the county’s mental hospital and then repeatedly swung a wooden club at officers who were trying to calm him, police said.

The incident, which occurred at 12:35 p.m., was the second fatal shooting involving a Ventura police officer in two months.

Minutes before Sunday’s shooting, officers had been summoned to Foothill Road and Hillmont Avenue, where two mental health workers were trying to persuade 28-year-old Ernesto Garcia to drop the 3-foot-long club he was brandishing, Lt. Pat Miller said.

Garcia, who had been placed in the mental facility three days earlier following an apparent suicide attempt, walked east on Foothill for about half a mile, followed by two officers and the mental health workers, Miller said.

As the group was trying to persuade him to drop the club, Garcia “had the club up almost over his shoulder like you would hold a baseball bat,” Miller said. He described Garcia as being 6-foot-2 and weighing 230 pounds.

“They [the officers] walked with him trying to get him to put down the club he was carrying,” Miller said. “He was shouting, ‘You’re going to have to kill me or shoot me.’ And he said that more than once.”

At Willowick Drive, Garcia began swinging the club at officers before Officer Brian Hewlett fired one shot into Garcia’s chest with his service revolver, Miller said. Garcia dropped the club and fell to the ground.

Garcia was taken to the Ventura County Medical Center, where he died shortly after 1:30 p.m.

Garcia had first been admitted to the mental facility, which is adjacent to the medical center, early Thursday after Santa Paula police, responding to a residential call, found Garcia bleeding from the left wrist, Miller said.

Garcia told Santa Paula officers that he had swallowed more than 100 pills in an effort to kill himself, and that he had attempted suicide twice before, Miller said.

Garcia’s relatives could not be reached for comment late Sunday.

The shooting will be investigated by homicide detectives and reviewed by the district attorney’s office to determine whether it was justified. Also, an administrative investigation will be conducted to determine whether the shooting fell within departmental guidelines.

Miller said he did not know whether the officers had first attempted to subdue Garcia with their nightsticks or pepper spray.

“It must have been close enough for the officer to have felt threatened,” Miller said.

Miller said Hewlett was at least a five-year veteran of the force. It was not clear whether Hewlett would be placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigations.

On April 30, another Ventura police officer shot and killed a 21-year-old man accused of robbing residents with a replica handgun. Details of that investigation have not been released, although police officials have said Officer Tim Turner fired because he believed that the victims were in danger.