Officials Close Road Due to Distraught Man
Ventura County sheriff’s officials closed off a two-mile stretch of North Ventura Avenue on Wednesday afternoon after a distraught man told mental health workers that he planned to kill himself, authorities said.
Traffic was rerouted between Shell and Canada Larga roads for almost three hours as investigators tried to talk the man out of his mobile home.
The unidentified man surrendered minutes before 5 p.m., and was led away for psychiatric evaluation.
“We were able to convince him to come out,” Senior Deputy Chuck Buttell said. “He’s cooperative. He didn’t have any weapons on him when he came out.”
State law allows mental health officials to hold a suspect for psychiatric evaluation for three days.
Buttell said the man apparently called Ventura County mental health officials about 2 p.m., threatening to kill himself.
Mental health officials notified Ventura police, who referred the call to the Sheriff’s Department after determining that the incident was outside their jurisdiction. Sheriff’s officials responded by cordoning off the neighborhood surrounding the Las Encinas mobile home park and calling in the Special Weapons and Tactics squad.
Residents of the mobile home park were not evacuated during the incident. No one was hurt during the three-hour standoff.
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