Woman at Home Hit by Shotgun Blast

Police say a 68-year-old woman was hit by a shotgun blast through the window of her Ondulando-area home late Wednesday and they are exploring a possible link to a Santa Barbara shooting earlier in the day.

Michelle Hanson was struck by shotgun pellets in the back at 11:10 p.m. while sitting in the den of her home in the 100 block of Sunnyhill Court, north of Foothill Road in east Ventura, authorities said.

She was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, where she was in the intensive-care unit Thursday night. Police say the wound was not life-threatening.

Investigators do not know whether the shooting was intentional or accidental, but are looking into a possible link with a shooting earlier in the evening in Santa Barbara.

That shooting happened at 7:20 p.m. at the National Multiple Sclerosis office on De La Vina Street.

Santa Barbara police say Patricia Marie Nelan, who they say has a history of health and mental problems, took out her rage against the health-care system by firing a shotgun at a social worker. The shot barely missed the social worker.

While Santa Barbara police discounted any connection, Ventura investigators said they would like to question 46-year-old Nelan in connection with the shooting of Hanson as well.

Ventura Police Sgt. George Morris said Nelan, who frequents the Oxnard-Ventura area, should be considered armed and dangerous.

Police say Nelan confronted the social worker at the end of the business day Wednesday. Then she fired the gun once and left in a 1985 Toyota pickup truck, Lt. Nick Katzenstein said.

“Nelan had the gun, she was ready for a confrontation and was just waiting for her victim,” Katzenstein said.

About 1:20 a.m. Thursday, Nelan called Los Angeles radio station KFI-AM and, during a 20-minute taped conversation with host Tammy Bruce and a detective who was brought in on the phone call, Nelan admitted the shooting, Katzenstein said.

“She thought she killed the woman,” Katzenstein said. “She said she did it because she was not getting treated for her medical problems.”

Before hanging up on the detective, Nelan threatened to kill herself, he said.

Police say Nelan uses a post office box in the 3600 block of Harbor Boulevard in Oxnard but lives in her truck.

The license plate on Nelan’s truck is 2YQF249. She is described as white, 5 foot 1, 130 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.

Security was heightened Thursday at the Santa Barbara MS office, but clients were coming and going as usual, Executive Director Joan Young said.

Nelan, who had been a client since April, had made no threats to anyone before the shooting, Young said.

As for a possible motive, Young said, “we have no way to make an assumption.”

Katzenstein warned health-care workers who have treated Nelan to be cautious of her should she show up for treatment.

Anyone with information on Nelan’s whereabouts has been urged to contact local authorities.