Police Kill Armed Man at Ventura Art Festival

A routine police stop led to a dramatic chase through one Ventura restaurant and across downtown rooftops Saturday night, ending when the armed man was fatally shot as hundreds of local residents packed the streets for the city’s annual Artwalk celebration.

The 29-year-old Ventura resident, who remained unidentified pending notification of family members, was shot shortly after 6 p.m. at Poli and Oak streets, across from City Hall and within a few dozen feet of spectators touring shops.

Art seekers turned into crime-scene gawkers, and the incident halted store-to-store browsing. Throngs of people, some dressed formally and others in T-shirts and shorts, crowded Oak Street, watching the 25 revolver- and rifle-toting officers.

Live and recorded classical music being piped from several stores on Oak Street was temporarily drowned out when a sheriff’s helicopter passed over.

Before being fired upon, the man had waved his gun and threatened suicide, police said.

“It was a pretty tense situation,” Police Lt. Carl Handy said. “We’ve got a guy waving a gun around and it’s crowded downtown. This gets people pretty pumped up.”

The man was taken by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, where he died minutes later, police said. Afterward, jeans cut from the man during resuscitation efforts and his revolver were all that remained on the sidewalk where he had collapsed.

An on-duty Ventura police officer shot the man once after the man continued to flash a gun during the chase and then confronted the officer with the weapon, Lt. Don Arth said.

The chase started shortly before 6 p.m. outside the Greyhound station at 291 E. Thompson Blvd. after another officer attempted to question the man and several bystanders.

Arth said he did not know the reason for the initial stop.

The man fled south on Thompson Boulevard before running into the back door of the Busy Bee Cafe at 478 E. Main St. An employee said the man held a gun against his own chest as he dashed through the packed diner, out the front door and into the Ventura Inn, where he made his way to the roof.

“He was going from rooftop to rooftop and it just seemed like he was trying to find a way down,” said art walk patron Bill Allen of Ventura.

After jumping from the Ventura Inn’s roof to another rooftop, the man worked his way over barbed wire in a nearby alley and scaled the fence surrounding the home of Bambi Ruebe.

Ruebe, who lives behind her Ancient Aromatics shop at 50 North Oak St., said that after hearing sirens she locked the shop and ran to her 8-year-old son who was in their home.

Ruebe then came face to face with the man, who was perched on her fence, she said.

“He was covered in blood, maybe from the barbed wire, and I looked right at him and I kept thinking he was going to come into my backyard,” Ruebe said.

Ruebe and other store owners in the Artwalk--a celebration of art, music and dance with environmental themes--resumed serving tea and coffee to patrons by 6:30 p.m.

Peter Margenat, owner of the Calico Cat Bookstore on Main Street, said the shooting was the talk of the Artwalk for a while.

“At the time all the movement was happening, people were talking about it,” Margenat said about three hours after the shooting. “But they aren’t anymore, and we’re packed.”

Margenat and Connie Brose, owner of Main Street’s Gold Lion Gallery, said Saturday’s turnout for the Artwalk was one of the best in years.