Neighbor Sought in Shooting of Fillmore Man

A 22-year-old Fillmore man was in stable condition Saturday after being shot Friday night, allegedly by a neighborhood teen who authorities said has gang connections.

It’s the first shooting in Fillmore in more than two years, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

Ariel Hernandez Acosta was shot with a small-caliber pistol about 9 p.m. Friday, authorities said. He was being treated at Santa Paula Memorial Hospital and was expected to fully recover.

The suspect, described only as a teenage boy who has had previous run-ins with the law, remained at large Saturday.

According to Sheriff’s Department spokesman Eric Nishimoto, several residents on Palm Street called authorities Friday night to report hearing gunfire. When deputies arrived, they found Acosta lying on the ground near his home, and were told by witnesses that the suspect had run into another home on Palm Street.

Believing the suspect had barricaded himself with a gun inside the home, deputies surrounded the residence and began trying to contact the boy by telephone. No one answered the calls, authorities said.

About 2:45 a.m. Saturday, sheriff’s SWAT unit members, along with a canine team, stormed the house but found it empty. Authorities believe the shooter ran out a back door and fled immediately after the shooting. The motive remained under investigation.

The last shooting in the city was in May 2000, when a sheriff’s deputy shot a man outside a wedding reception at the Fillmore-Piru Veterans Memorial Building at 2nd Street and Central Avenue.

Deputies arrived at the event to handle a heated argument between Chad Morales, who was armed with a gun, and his father, Anthony Morales, a former Fillmore police officer. Deputies ordered the younger Morales to drop his weapon, and when he refused, Deputy Tonya Herbst fired at him. Her shot, though, struck the older Morales in the back.

Anthony Morales was treated at a hospital and later released, and his son was arrested. He later pleaded guilty to a felony charge of drawing a firearm in the presence of a deputy and spent 120 days in jail.

The shooting was deemed justified and Herbst remains on the job.