Man, 29, Shot After Allegedly Grabbing Officer’s Gun

OXNARD — Two police officers were placed on paid administrative leave after the weekend shooting of a 29-year-old man, whom they say grabbed one of their semiautomatic pistols.

Oliverio Ortiz, who is listed at St. John’s Regional Medical Center under the last name of Martinez, was in serious but stable condition in the critical care unit Sunday evening.

He suffered five gunshot wounds and was struck in the left eye, the chest and three times in the right leg, according to authorities.

Police say the officers--whose names have not been released--were patrolling the 5000 block of Cypress Road in south Oxnard about 8:30 Saturday night when they approached people standing in a field in back of a strip of apartments.

The officers were investigating transients living in the field who might have been using or selling drugs, according to Oxnard Police Cmdr. Joseph Munoz.

Ortiz fled when the officers tried to question him, Munoz said. One of the officers chased Ortiz, caught him and struggled with him in the rear of the apartment complex at 5450 Cypress Road.

Police say that Ortiz grabbed the officer’s 9-millimeter handgun during the scuffle and pointed it at him. Meanwhile, the second officer arrived and fired at Ortiz, police said.

“I heard a pop, pop, pop last night,” said a 14-year-old resident of the neighborhood, who added that he did not witness the shooting. “I heard them running and a guy screaming from pain.”

Other Cypress Road residents describe Ortiz as a slight man who often rode his mountain bike around the neighborhood and went by the nickname “Bello.” Two young boys recall him at various times attempting to sell all sorts of goods, including firecrackers and a radio.

One woman, who asked not to be identified, said Ortiz had moved to Ventura County from Mexico in the summer and sometimes worked as a field laborer. She did not know where Ortiz lived, but said she thought his parents lived in a trailer near a farm in Camarillo.

Others in the neighborhood say the police frequently patrol their street, and that the small field surrounded by a graffiti-filled wall is a well-known location for drug dealers.

“There’s a lot of stuff that goes on here,” said 18-year-old Elba Mendoza, who has lived in her apartment with her family for two years. “But I’ve never heard of a shooting.”

One of the messages scrawled on the wall near where Ortiz was shot reads “Monique + Bello.” Neighbors say they believe the woman was his girlfriend.

In January, Oxnard police shot and killed a man in the 100 block of Frank Avenue after responding to a call of domestic violence by the man’s wife.

Before that, a police-involved shooting occurred in August 1995 when a sergeant with 30 years of experience killed a man suspected of stealing a pack of cigarettes and threatening officers with a knife.

Oxnard police detectives and a representative from the Ventura County district attorney’s office are investigating Ortiz’s shooting.