String of Slayings Rattles County’s Aura of Safety

A mother of two is handcuffed and shot in the head execution-style during a takeover robbery at a Thousand Oaks bank.

A popular Buena High School student is stabbed to death by an intruder hiding in his family’s Ventura home, cut down the summer before his senior year.

An elderly man and his daughter are shot dead in front of the woman’s 3-year-old son by a neighbor who said he believed he was killing the devil and a demon.

And a woman and her three young sons fleeing for their lives are gunned down by her distraught husband, shattering the calm of a Simi Valley neighborhood.

All of this in the safest urban county in the West. Despite statistics that show crime rates here are at their lowest levels in nearly three decades, fear has crept into the four corners of Ventura County.

Over the past three months, these crimes have struck a deep chord in communities that have thought themselves safe, even immune from such violence.

“It’s easier for people to accept the kind of crimes they frequently hear about involving, say, gang members hurting other gang members,” said Chief Deputy Bob Brooks of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.

“When it’s someone they feel is completely innocent,” he added, “the crimes are just much more shocking.”

It is a bitter irony, then, that in Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks--the two safest big cities in the nation--people don’t feel safe, Brooks said.

And in relatively peaceful places like Upper Ojai and Ventura, where crime rates are lower than they have been since the late 1960s, others worry that random violence could touch them or someone they love.

It is as if these four acts of violence have shaken a sense of security so many here take for granted, as if they have caused people to wonder, “Could it happen to me or my children?”

“I do hear that from people,” said Brooks, who heads the department’s east county division, which patrols Thousand Oaks, Moorpark and the unincorporated eastern portions of the county.

“The bigger picture is that it is safe here and we do not have to live in fear,” he said “[But] even in the safest places, we are not immune.”

There have been other crimes, even other killings--16 homicides since Jan. 1.

But the four homicide cases since the end of April have had a great resonance, tapping a deep well of fear. Such random acts of violence aren’t supposed to happen here, and certainly not to ordinary people going about ordinary business.

The homicides also come just as prosecutors begin their cases against Michael Dally and Diana Haun.

The pair are accused of kidnapping Sheri Dally, a mother of two boys, from a Target store parking lot, bludgeoning her to death and dumping her body in a ravine north of Ventura.

It is the seeming randomness that gnaws at people.

“It’s the nature of the crime,” explained Ventura Police Lt. Don Arth, who is leading the team of detectives investigating the June 24 stabbing death of 16-year-old James “Jake” Bush.

“The fact that the people can see themselves in similar circumstances--doing everyday things like going to the mall or coming home--gives us all pause to think that it could have been me or someone I know,” Arth said. “It’s those kinds of crimes that shake the community to the very core.”

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Jake Bush--a track team co-captain and scholastic standout-- was stabbed in the chest, arm and neck after coming home from running errands with his mother and stumbling on a burglar.

Jake’s mother, Gail Shirley, was on the phone with police at the time and did not see her son’s attacker. She only heard her son gasp that he had been stabbed.

She worked feverishly to save Jake, but he slipped away a few hours later while in surgery.

Police continue to look for a teenager seen knocking on doors near Jake’s home shortly before he was killed. They released a composite sketch of the youth, described as a clean-shaven Latino, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a slim build and close-cropped black hair.

On Monday, police announced they had found what they believe is the murder weapon--a black-handled knife with a 7-inch serrated blade marketed as the “Intimidator.”

A shocked Ventura City Council put up a $10,000 reward. Ventura County Crime Stoppers added $1,000.

Ventura restaurant owner John Strobel, whose teenage son, Jesse, was killed four years earlier in a similar incident--said Jake’s death affected him deeply.

“It’s not only that it could have been your son or daughter,” Strobel said. “It could have been you.”

*

In the days after Jake died, those words were often repeated.

One of Jake’s close friends, 17-year-old Amanda Snyder, dropped a bouquet of flowers at his home and stood in shock for a moment.

“He was in his house with his mom,” Snyder said in disbelief. “I mean this could have been you; it could have been your son. My God, this is Ventura, not Los Angeles. It’s not supposed to happen here.”

But it does happen here. In fact, Jake’s death was the latest in a series of brutal crimes.

Each has received widespread media attention just as the county was topping national rankings as the safest urban area in the West.

In late May, the same week that Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks were respectively named the nation’s No. 1 and 2 safest cities with populations of more than 100,000, Simi Valley had one of the largest multiple homicides in county history.

The morning of May 27, 44-year-old Ahmad Salman, depressed and drowning in financial problems, grabbed a hunting rifle and chased down his wife and three children as they tried to escape.

He then turned the gun on himself.

Killed, along with Salman, were Salman’s 38-year-old wife Nabela; their 5-year-old twins, Zain and Zaid; and their 3-year-old son, Yezen.

The carnage was so devastating that even veteran police officers and paramedics were given counseling.

Six days later, Simi Valley was named the safest big city in the nation.

“It is kind of ironic that we had both of these things happen in the same week,” said Simi Valley Police Chief Randy Adams.

“It just serves as a reminder . . . that even in the safest city in the nation we are not immune to crime,” Adams added. “We cannot say it will never happen here, but we are proud to say that it rarely does.”

*

It also rarely happens in the placid, rural community of Upper Ojai.

But less than a week earlier, Miguel “Mike” Hugo Garcia, 43, shot and killed his neighbors in front of a 3-year-old boy. Killed were Helen D. Giardina, 42, and her father Albert “Jim” Alexander, 83.

The May 22 killings were the first in Upper Ojai in more than two decades, officials said. And that they took place in front of Giardina’s 3-year-old son made it even more disturbing for local residents.

Garcia has admitted to the double homicide, but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

A tape recording of a 911 phone call has Garcia admitting to the shooting, and also has Giardina’s son shrieking in terror as he lay on top of his dead mother.

“Grandpa’s dead and mommy can’t wake up, she can’t wake up!” the boy cried to a dispatcher. “Can you help? . . . Please come.”

Just three weeks before that double homicide, bank teller Monica Lynne Leech was shot during a Thousand Oaks bank robbery.

“There is no reason for Monica Leech or those two good people in Ojai to die,” said Ventura County Sheriff’s Capt. Larry Robertson, who heads the team of detectives that worked both cases.

“I can’t explain why something like that could happen here anymore than you could,” he said.

The April 28 killing of Leech, a 39-year-old mother of two, attracted media attention from the CBS news magazine “48 Hours” and Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted.”

*

The increased attention prompted responses from all over the nation.

The tragedy was heightened by the fact that Leech took the job in Thousand Oaks because she presumed it would be safer than a teller job she had in Oxnard.

But on that Monday morning, robbers dressed in yellow jackets and construction hats stormed the bank, jumped the counter and raided the cash drawers.

Leech and three other bank employees were corralled into a back room that held a safe. She was handcuffed, forced to her knees and then--for unknown reasons--shot in the back of the head.

There have been no arrests in the case.

But working on tips about a car seen in the area, investigators say they are narrowing their search for the two suspects.

“What makes the Leech case different for Ventura County . . . is the absolute brutal and random nature of this arbitrary murder,” said Gary Auer, special agent in charge of the Ventura office of the FBI. “Because of the personal impact of a crime like this, the interest of the public is in having this lead to the arrest of the killers.

The four crimes from the four corners of Ventura County are disturbing, but officials said the reality is that it is safe here.

Random violence occurs and there is not much that can be done about it.

“What can a person really do?” asked Robertson, a 29-year Sheriff’s Department veteran. “You can try and avoid dangerous areas, you could arm yourself, you can support local law enforcement, but beyond that you have to rely on the criminal justice system.

“It’s not perfect--based upon these acts of violence alone we know that. But we can’t hide in fear.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Jake Bush

James “Jake” Bush, 16, a high school track athlete, was stabbed to death June 24 after being surprised by a burglar in his Ventura home. Police are still looking for a teenage suspect seen knocking on doors near Jake’s home shortly before he was killed.

Jesse Strobel

Jesse Strobel, a 17-year-old Ventura High School student, was walking home from his father’s pizza parlor on Seaward Avenue on Jan. 29, 1993, when he was fatally stabbed on Catalina Street. The case remains unsolved.

Salman Family

A distraught 44-year-old Simi Valley man, Ahmad Salman, killed his wife and three young children before killing himself in late May. Salman had been depressed because of financial problems at the time of the shooting. The victims included Salman’s 38-year-old wife, Nabela; their 5-year-old twins, Zain and Zaid; and their 3-year-old son, Yezen.

Albert Alexander and Helen Giardina

Albert “Jim” Alexander, 83, and Helen D. Giardina, 42, were slain by a neighbor, Miguel “Mike” Hugo Garcia on May 22. Garcia, 43, has admitted to the slayings but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. The killings were the first in Upper Ojai in more than two decades.

Monica Leech

Monica Leech, a 39-year-old mother of two, was killed during a takeover robbery at a Thousand Oaks bank April 28. Leech, working as a bank teller, and three other bank employees were corralled into a back room that held a safe. Leech was handcuffed, forced to her knees and then shot in the back of her head. Leech had taken the job in Thousand Oaks because she presumed it would be safer than her former teller job in Oxnard. There have been no arrests.