Ojai Man Fatally Shot Outside Stable in Meiners Oaks

A 29-year-old Ojai man was found fatally shot early Sunday just outside a Meiners Oaks stable owned in part by a Ventura County sheriff’s lieutenant, authorities said.

Brent Matthew Price was declared dead about 2 a.m. at Ojai Valley Hospital, where he was taken after police responded to the report of a gunshot, authorities said.

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies gave no details of the circumstances of the shooting or whether there were suspects in what they are calling a homicide. They said only that they were searching for those responsible for the killing.

Price was found with a gunshot wound to the abdomen just before 12:30 a.m. after someone called the police to report hearing an argument and a gunshot, deputies said. Price was lying just outside the gate of Riverview Ranch, a stable where about 30 horses are boarded on the corner of El Roblar Drive and Rice Road.

Larry Gardner, manager and co-owner of the ranch with Sheriff’s Lt. Jim Barrett, said that police found the gate to the stable open but that nothing was out of place.

“We usually don’t have any problems around here,” Gardner said. “This is a family kind of place.”

Gardner said he sometimes employed the victim’s brother, Brad, as a day laborer. Gardner had employed Brent for only one day, and said that he was “uncomfortable” around him, so did not ask him back. He said he thought the brothers had moved to the area from Arizona a few months ago.

Gardner said he believed that Brent Price worked as a day laborer, but authorities did not release information about his employment.

Barrett could not be reached for comment.

One neighbor said she heard a gunshot just before 12:30 a.m., but did not call authorities because she assumed it was intended to frighten off coyotes, which frequent the rural area. She said she had heard gunshots before in the area.

The stable is bordered to the east by an orange orchard and to the west by mountains. Across the street along El Roblar Drive, spacious homes line the thoroughfare.

Some neighbors said they were unaware of the shooting until morning, when several Sheriff’s Department cars blocked the driveway to the stables.

“It’s really frightening,” said one neighbor. “It’s coming too close to home.”

On Sunday afternoon there was little sign of the shooting. Several youths fed, brushed and exercised the horses in the dirt corral and pens.

In addition to his brother, Price is survived by his father and a sister, who both live in Arizona.