Ventura County – As if getting a college education weren’t costly enough, students at Ventura county’s California State University Channel Islands apparently have to be prepared to cover the expense associated with having their cars stolen.
According to the report filed by Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Mike Ferguson, just after midnight on April 13th, deputies and CSU Campus Police officers responded to a 911 Emergency call reporting “suspicious people in a vehicle” driving through the campus.
The reporting citizen indicated that the occupants of the cruising car had told him they were lost and simply looking for directions, but that it was apparent they were neither students nor employees of the university.
Responding patrol units observed the vehicle in question, and shortly thereafter conducted a routine traffic stop pursuant to “a traffic violation” which occurred in front of them. It was at that point, according to Ferguson, that patrol officers “realized the car had been reported as stolen.”
With flashing red lights bringing the vehicle to a halt, officers made contact with its occupants, one of whom was apparently suffering from an abdominal stab wound.
In the car were Los Angeles area residents Pedro Tovar, 19, Jesus Hernandez-Vasquez, 20, Jessica Chavez, 19, and a 17-year-old male juvenile. Pursuant to questioning and a field investigation during which time emergency medical transport was summoned to the scene, officers only learned that the stabbing had taken place in Los Angeles County, with no further information forthcoming from the suspects.
The stabbing victim was transported to Los Robles Hospital & Medical Center in nearby Thousand Oaks, where his wounds were treated and he was released to police custody and promptly arrested.
Tovar, Hernandez-Vasquez, and Chavez were all transported to Ventura County Jail, where they were booked on charges of vehicle theft; the juvenile was taken to Ventura County Juvenile Hall where he was booked on the same charge as well as on a Los Angeles County arrest warrant.
