Authorities Plan to Arrest Man Shot by Deputy

As a 50-year-old Thousand Oaks man lay Monday in the critical care unit of Los Robles Regional Medical Center recovering from four gunshot wounds, sheriff’s investigators made plans to arrest him for allegedly assaulting a deputy.

Walter Francis Brazenor was shot by 24-year-old Sheriff’s Deputy Victor Fazio late Saturday afternoon in front of Brazenor’s home after the man, armed with two long knives, moved threateningly toward Fazio and two other deputies, Sheriff’s Capt. Keith Parks said.

As is routine in officer-involved shootings, Fazio--a three-year department veteran--was placed on paid administrative leave while the shooting is investigated, Parks said.

Brazenor was shot at least four times in the torso, hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway said. One of the shots nicked his kidney and another damaged an artery in his chest, Carraway said. She described his condition as critical but said he is expected to recover.

Family lawyer Jenny Scovis, who lives nearby and arrived at the scene shortly after Brazenor was shot, said she was not surprised that investigators plan to arrest him.

“I can’t imagine them not charging him,” said Scovis, a friend of the family for 18 years. “I got there four minutes too late. . . . I feel I could have talked to Walt and stopped it if only I had got there sooner.”

The incident began when the Sheriff’s Department received a 911 call that Brazenor had been smashing furniture and threatening his wife, Kimberly, and his two teenage daughters.

Brazenor, a retired Southern California Edison employee, has been ravaged by illness lately, including three severe bouts of pneumonia, Scovis said.

“He went from being a healthy person to being a shadow of what he used to be,” she said. “He was on a huge number of prescribed medicines, and that may have contributed to his state of mind. I don’t know.”

Authorities could find no record that officers had been called to the Brazenor home in the past, and according to Scovis and a check of court documents, Brazenor has no criminal record in Ventura County.

“He has been nothing but a very solid, decent human being,” Scovis said. “This is a very good, caring, wonderful family that has been struck by something out of the blue.”

In the 911 call a dispatcher was told that Brazenor had hacked away at a step in the house with a knife while going after one of his daughters, Parks said.

“When the first deputy arrived, Brazenor came out on the frontyard and was holding a knife,” Parks said. “The deputy told him to put it down, and he refused and went inside.”

After two other deputies arrived, including Fazio, Brazenor stepped outside--this time with two knives, Parks said.

Holding a dagger and an 18-inch sword-like weapon, Brazenor stood in the rain yelling at deputies and threatening to kill them, Parks said.

Capt. Bill Montijo, who is heading the investigation into the shooting, said the deputies repeatedly ordered Brazenor to drop the knives.

“He was given several chances to put down his weapons,” Montijo said.

Instead, Brazenor made an aggressive movement toward the deputies and was shot, Montijo said.

Investigators expect to arrest Brazenor within the next week, Montijo said.