Photo: Eric Manzano
Ventura County – According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Vince Alvarez, the City of Fillmore has recently been the site of “a rash of fires in trash cans, porta-potties, a shopping cart, and three structures.” All these incidents pointed to the fact that the community was home to an arsonist with clear symptoms of pyromania.
With all of the fires taking place in pre-dawn hours and with each resulting in property damage, detectives from the Fillmore Police Department were focused upon identifying and locating the responsible party before major damage could be done.
Their break came early on the morning of March 2nd when the Fillmore Historical Society reported a fire inside a building where video surveillance was in operation.
Responding deputies recovered video footage which recorded “a subject approach the building at approximately 3:30 a.m.” who was wearing “distinctive” clothing. The video images included the subject attempting to light several fires within the structure.
With that video distributed to FPD patrol units, a deputy spotted 32-year-old Fillmore resident Eric Manzano “in a public place” wearing clothing matching that represented in the surveillance images.
Deputies made contact with Manzano and quickly confirmed that he was indeed the individual recorded in the video. A search of his person quickly ensued, and he was found to be in possession of “items that linked him to the crime” as well as assorted drug paraphernalia.
Manzano was transported to Ventura County Jail where he was booked charges of arson and drug possession.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
