Photo: Bridgette Salas and Gilbert Puga
Ventura County – The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Gang Unit and the Thousand Oaks School Resource Officer Unit were involved in responding to a 911 Emergency call on March 29th reporting a fight in progress.
Responding deputies made contact with a 13-year-old female who was the apparent victim of a physical battering that had just occurred.
According to VCSD spokesman Sgt. Dillan Alvarez, the on-scene investigation indicated that 42-year-old Simi Valley resident Bridgette Salas had been “involved in a verbal argument” with the young victim.
That confrontation escalated as Salas briefly left the area but shortly thereafter returned with 44-year-old Simi Valley resident Gilbert Puga and two teenage females. Upon their arrival, the two teenagers set upon their younger victim, battering her to the point of her eventually “being transported to Los Robles Hospital for treatment of a significant head injury.”
Witnesses to the attack indicated that one of the juvenile suspects had “brandished and activated a taser” to dissuade anyone at the scene from intervening in the battering.
According to those witnesses, throughout the violence Salas and Puga “watched as the 16-year-old female juvenile suspect battered the victim and made no attempt to stop this attack.” Before deputies arrived on the scene, Salas, Puga, and the two teens suspects were nowhere to be seen.
The following week’s investigation produced a search warrant on the residences of Salas, Puga, and the two juvenile suspects. Each of the adults was taken into custody and transported to Ventura County Jail and charged with assault with a deadly weapon, child endangerment, and conspiracy to commit a crime with their bail set at $50,000 each. The two juveniles were transported to Ventura County Juvenile Justice Center and similarly charged.
Photos: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
