Ventura County – Just after midnight on Saturday, July 18th the streets of Santa Paula erupted in gunfire after a party bus driver ordered the occupants of his vehicle onto the sidewalk pursuant to their disruptive behavior.
According to Santa Paula Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Ishmael Cordero, when the partygoers were dropped off on the sidewalk, “a fracas broke loose” during which multiple individuals were shot. Upon arrival of SPPD patrol units to the scene, there was what Santa Paula Fire Department Chief Rick Araiza described as “chaos that was difficult to control” among responders, victims, and family members of victims. “It seemed like we were trying to treat the patients, and apparently their relatives or friends were there asking us to take care of the situation without letting us do our jobs,” Araiza later reported.
Utlimately, two of the victims were transported by ambulance to Ventura County Medical Center, one of whom was reported in critical condition, while a third victim was taken to Santa Paula Hospital. Shortly thereafter, according to Cordero, another victim “turned up at VCMC after being driven there in a private vehicle.”
One of those initially described as a shooting victim, Eric Medrano, a 22-year-old resident of Santa Paula, was soon determined pursuant to investigation as a prime suspect in the outbreak of gunfire, and after he was released from the hospital some twenty hours later at 10:00 p.m. on the 18th, he was arrested and charged with attempted murder. A documented member of a criminal street gang, Medrano was on parole at the time of the shootings, and was booked into Ventura County Jail on charges of attempted murder with his bail set at $1,000,000.
Photo: courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
