Photo: Mario Alexander Rodriguez
June 15, 2020 – Ventura County, Ca.
Based upon the events in the early evening of June 9th, tensions even arise between employees and their supervisors in the presumptively stress-free outdoor environment where our food is grown. Not even the agricultural industry appears immune to outbreaks of workplace violence.
It was just as the sun was setting when, according to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Steve Jenkins, a 911 Emergency call arrived at the Sheriff’s Communications Center. The caller indicated that “he’d been shot by a coworker at a farm” in the City of Fillmore.
Responding deputies discovered a 45-year-old man with a bullet wound to his shoulder. The victim reported that 25-year-old Fillmore resident Mario Alexander Rodriguez and he had engaged in “a series of arguments” when Rodriguez retreated to a nearby trailer and then stepped outside with a rifle in hand.
Moments later, Rodriguez allegedly pointed the weapon at the victim and fired a single round, hitting his target in the shoulder.
At that point, Rodriguez took off running on foot. By the time the deputies arrived on the scene, Rodriguez was nowhere to be found.
The ensuing investigation developed information indicating that Rodriguez had made his way to the City of Vallejo in Northern California. Detectives attached to the VCSD Major Crimes and Narcotics Units then traveled to Vallejo, located Rodriguez in the downtown area, and on June 11th took him into custody. Rodriguez was then transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on a charge of attempted murder, with his bail set at $500,000.
Photo: Courtesy Ventura County Jail Booking
