14-Year-Old Girl With Knife Is Shot by Police

An emotionally troubled 14-year-old girl armed with a large kitchen knife was shot three times in the abdomen after she allegedly lunged at a police officer inside the Ventura home she shares with her foster parents.

The teenager was shot about 10:30 p.m. Sunday in her Opal Avenue home by one of five officers who responded to a 911 call from her foster father, Ventura Police Sgt. Brock Avery said.

The girl was listed in stable condition late Monday at Ventura County Medical Center.

“A call came into the Police Department that the girl was out of control in the house, and she had armed herself with a kitchen knife,” Avery said. “She was walking around the kitchen, not so much yelling but not cooperating.” The foster parents “had confronted her earlier in the night about not following the house rules.”

The girl’s foster father, Robert Worthley, his wife, Zaida, and five other foster children left the house after the shooting and were staying at a Ventura hotel Monday. They were unavailable for comment.

Cristy Crawford, the couple’s adult daughter, questioned the methods used by officers. “I think the force used was not necessary,” she said as she left her parents’ home Monday morning on her way to the hotel. “She is a child and she is very frail.”

Crawford said the girl was born in China and had moved in with the Worthleys less than a month ago after living in foster homes outside of Ventura County.

Officer Kristin Rupp, 23, who shot the girl, was placed on paid administrative leave pending an investigation. Rupp joined the department last year.

Two officers specially trained in dealing with the mentally ill were on the scene at the time of the shooting, but events unfolded before they could get involved, Avery said.

Officers said the situation developed so rapidly they were left with no other choice but to shoot. County mental health specialists who are part of the county’s Crisis Intervention Team arrived just after the shooting, officials said.

When officers arrived at the house, they spoke briefly with Robert Worthley in the frontyard, Avery said. Worthley said he put his wife and other foster children in a back bedroom and locked the door for protection.

Two officers who initially responded to the call were joined by three others, including the two with recent mental health training, Avery said.

Shortly after, the officers entered the two-story home.

One officer confronted the girl at the bottom of a stairway and opened fire when the teenager, holding a knife, got within 6 feet of her, Avery said. “The officer who did the shooting saw the girl and told her to stop and put down the knife, which she didn’t do,” he said.

The shooting comes a month after a deadly confrontation between Ventura detectives and a 19-year-old car-theft suspect in the parking lot of a Thompson Boulevard motel. Randy Reeves of Ventura died of a gunshot wound to the chest after he allegedly pulled a knife on an officer during a fight.

Officers from Ventura and other cities in Ventura County have been going through a mental health training course since December. About 150 police officers are expected to complete the training this year.

The course is designed to teach officers communication skills to help defuse situations such as the one that occurred Sunday night.

But the training doesn’t fit every situation, said Dr. Michael Ferguson, acting medical director for the Ventura County Department of Behavioral Health.

“We hope to avoid these situations as much as possible, but sometimes things can happen,” said Ferguson, who helped design the course’s 100-page training manual. “We have to realize that it comes to the point where an officer is directly threatened and they have to protect the public and themselves. You can’t always avoid a tragedy.”

County officials said the girl had spent time in recent months at Casa Pacifica, a nonprofit board and care home in Camarillo that cares for neglected and abused children.

Others who work with foster children in Ventura County described the Worthleys as a model foster-care family.

“The Worthleys are a widely respected foster couple,” said Ted Myers, director of the county Department of Children and Family Services. “This is a tragic situation. The Worthleys are respected for their ability to handle difficult children.”

Myers said 30% to 40% of the nearly 800 foster children in Ventura County have been diagnosed with severe emotional problems.