Ventura County – 18-year-old Shawn Grant, a resident of Camarillo, is lucky to be alive.
In the late morning of Thursday, September 3rd, a 911 Emergency call placed by Edward Michaud, 22, reporting a possible drug overdose brought units from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Camarillo Patrol, the Ventura County Fire Department, and American Medical Response paramedics to a Mission Verde Drive residence where Grant was not breathing and was immediately diagnosed as suffering from a heroin overdose.
Only the prompt resuscitation efforts of the paramedics on the scene allowed Grant to be transported by ambulance to a local hospital for further treatment. The ensuing investigation by deputies at the scene established that Michaud had hidden the syringe used by Grant in a nearby trash receptacle, and that Michaud himself “was also experiencing an adverse event due to heroin ingestion,” which prompted his immediate trip to an area emergency medical facility.
With both victims of an overdose recovering under medical care, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Victor Fazio, evidence soon surfaced indicating that “the source of supply for the heroin” was Bronson Boyett, 21, of Camarillo. That identification put VCSD Narcotics Street Team detectives on Boyett’s trail; he was contacted later in the day in the company of Hunter Wise, 23, Louis Merriken, 31, and Harden Clark, 20, all residents of Camarillo.
Residents of this east Camarillo development were probably unaware that a drug dealer lived in their neighborhood.
Boyett was summarily taken into custody and arrested on charges of sales of heroin resulting in great bodily injury, with Wise, Merriken, and Clark all arrested and charged with being under the influence of heroin. Pursuant to further investigation and a personal body search Merriken was found to be in possession of more than 100 doses of heroin, methamphetamine, and Xanax, all of which he had , as described by Fazio, “secreted on his person.”
Boyett was booked into Ventura County Jail with bail set at $500,000, while Merriken was booked with his bail set at $250,000.
Bronson Boyett, who lives in the east Camarillo housing development near Tierra Linda Elementary School, Adolfo Camarillo High School and Los Colinas Middle School, has been arrested at least seventeen times in the past two years, mostly for being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of drugs and paraphernalia. Records also show that Louis Merriken has a similar past, with at least sixteen arrests on the same set of charges. Merriken lives in the same neighborhood, his home being near Pitts Ranch Park.
Photos: courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
