VENTURA COUNTY — Some people just can’t seem to “win for losing.” The most recent example of that adage may be 25-year-old Ojai resident Tyler Acosta.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Ron Chips, Acosta’s problems surfaced just after midnight on April 28, 2017, when cops showed up at the Ojai Valley Hospital emergency room, having been summoned there by medical staff reporting “a gunshot victim.”
Lying on the table before them with a bullet wound to his abdomen, Acosta told the cops that he “had been walking in a field” when he found himself face-to-face with “an unidentified male transient” with whom he was soon embroiled in a physical confrontation that ended with the transient whipping out a gun and shooting Acosta.
At that time, the VCSD Major Crimes unit began an investigation that quickly failed to “corroborate Acosta’s statement.” Some more poking around by detectives ultimately led the cops to the conclusion that Acosta—a felon prohibited from possessing a firearm due to a prior firearms conviction—had once again been “in unlawful possession of a handgun” and had, in fact, shot himself in the stomach.
Acosta’s obviously deficient marksmanship, coupled with his apparent fascination with firearms, led to the July 13th visit to his residence by several detectives who summarily took him into custody and transported him to Ventura County Jail.
Upon arrival, Acosta was booked on charges of unlawful possession of a firearm, negligent discharge of a firearm resulting in injury, possession of ammunition, possession of a fixed blade dagger, and possession “of a usable quantity” of methamphetamine. The totality of those charges earned Acosta a bail amount set at $105,000.
Photo: courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
