Ventura County – Answering the question “where are the cops when you need one?”, Thousand Oaks Police Department patrol officers were johnny-on-the-spot at the Janss Marketplace Mall in the wee hours of the morning of July 29th when they heard a woman screaming for help.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Detective Tim Lohman, the officers were in the mall at 2:00 a.m. “on an unrelated call,” having remained in the area to keep the peace outside of the popular Sunset Terrace Restaurant and Lounge, the site of a prior disturbance that same evening. “At that time in the morning, our attention is focused on some of these restaurants,” Lohmoan reported, with officers at the mall “as a proactive measure to help avoid any fights in the parking lot.”
Upon hearing a 25-year-old female’s screams, they rushed to her location and quickly discovered that she had been “knocked to the ground” by a male assailant whom she alleged had perpetrated a rape attempt upon her.
With that information, deputies immediately began an area search for anyone matching the victim’s description. Shortly thereafter, Erik Ancelmo Lopez Ramos, a 25-year-old local resident of Thousand Oaks, was contacted and detained. Once he was identified as the likely assailant, Ramos was placed under arrest and transported to Ventura County Jail where he was booked on charges of attempted rape, with his bail set at $500,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
