Ventura barricade suspect allegedly threatened to kill officers, more news

Yahoo

12-04-2025

Ventura police serving a search warrant with a SWAT team wound up in an hours-long standoff that lasted into the early hours of Friday, April 11, with a man who previously threatened to kill officers, authorities said.
The barricade situation in the 300 block of North Catalina Street unfolded after an earlier incident involving the residence, Ventura Police Department officials said in a news release. The block in the city's midtown area is located north of Poli Street, near the Ventura High School campus.
Patrol officers had previously responded to the home on April 5 to keep the peace when a former tenant was picking up her property. During the process, the primary resident, a 55-year-old Ventura man, had come out and threatened to kill the officers, saying he would "blow their skulls off," according to the police account.
After the encounter, the man went back inside. Once everyone was safely away from the home, officers chose to disengage for the safety of the neighborhood, authorities said.
Detectives subsequently investigated the April 5 incident and found the former tenant had tried to get her property in December. The suspect had reportedly struck and seriously injured her with the butt of a rifle.
Based on the incidents, detectives secured an arrest and search warrant that was served shortly before 9 p.m. on April 10.
Because of the suspect's prior behavior and his access to firearms, the operation involved Ventura's SWAT team and was assisted by Oxnard Police Department SWAT team members. Ventura City Fire crews were also on hand, along with a K-9 police dog.
Four people immediately came out of the home when the warrant was served. They told officers the suspect was still inside and refusing to exit. They confirmed he had access to guns, according to the release.
Crisis negotiators tried for several hours to get the man to come outside. He refused, authorities said.
At around 2:35 a.m. on April 11, SWAT officers entered the home. They found the suspect barricaded in the bathroom and tried further negotiations, but he wouldn't come out. Officers then entered the bathroom and arrested the man without further incident. No injuries were reported, police officials said.
When the arrest warrant was issued on the afternoon of April 10, prosecutors filed charges against the man that included two felony counts of criminal threats, a felony charge of battery with serious bodily injury and a misdemeanor resisting offense, the Ventura County Superior Court docket shows. No plea has yet been entered.
The man was released from county jail custody on a $20,000 bail bond on the afternoon of April 11 and has a court appearance scheduled for April 25, according to jail and court records.
An Oxnard man has been sentenced to prison after previously pleading guilty in to a second-degree murder outside a convenience store in the city more than eight years ago.
Christopher Paul Arevalo, 33, was sentenced April 11 to 35 years to life in state prison, the court docket shows. He was given credit for time already served in jail.
Arevalo had pleaded guilty March 13 in connection with the killing of 25-year-old Giovanni Vega, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office said. He also admitted to the special allegation that he personally used a firearm to commit the murder. Special allegations bring heavier sentences when there is a conviction.
Arevalo and an associate entered the store on Dec. 8, 2016, and Vega walked in about a minute later, authorities have said. They followed him when he left the store. The defendant then caught up with the victim, asked where he was from and reportedly shot him four times.
The next morning, a jogger discovered Vega's body along West Vineyard Avenue, about 130 yards from the store. Surveillance footage from the business led Oxnard Police Department investigators to Arevalo, authorities said.
He was identified by the DA's office as a known gang member but the court docket shows an allegation related to gang activity was dismissed at sentencing.
Arevalo was arrested five months after the shooting on April 28, 2017, in Farmington, New Mexico, after an FBI SWAT team served a search warrant at a home in the city, The Star reported.
The associate, Joseph Minister, was arrested on the same date in Oxnard. Minister subsequently pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of being an accessory after the fact and admitted the special allegation of street terrorism. He is due to be sentenced on May 15.
An Oxnard man, now 68, has been sentenced to hundreds of years in prison after being convicted in a years-old child molestation case, prosecutors said.
Marcelino Arias Arca was sentenced on April 7 to 480 years to life in state prison, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office said, in a case involving two underage victims.
Jurors had convicted him on March 5 of six felony counts of lewd acts upon a child. The jury also found true a special allegation there were multiple victims. Arca admitted to other special allegations that included two prior strike convictions for molestation in 1988, the DA's office said in a news release. Special allegations bring heavier sentences if a defendant is convicted.
The abuse took place between 2005 and 2014, when the victims were under 14, prosecutors said. The molestation occurred in multiple locations over several years. Arca had access to the minors through a familial relationship, prosecutors said. The victims reported the incidents years later to a trusted family member.
Senior Deputy DA Ben Moreno, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement Arca had gone to prison decades ago for sexually abusing a child.
"When given a second chance, he chose not to change — instead, he went on to sexually abuse two more children, this time within his own family,' the prosecutor said.
Arca remains housed at the Todd Road Jail facility outside Santa Paula. A restitution hearing has been scheduled for the morning of May 13 in courtroom 46.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Man allegedly threatened to kill police before Ventura standoff, more