Photo: Stock Image
The city of Fillmore, nestled among the rolling orange groves of the Santa Clara River Valley at the foot of the Topatopa Mountains, unlike many of today’s major metropolitan areas, rarely makes the news simply because it’s a quiet place and the citizenry generally behaves themselves.
That was apparently not the case on the morning of April 15, 2023. According to
Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Will Hollowell, commercial district businesses hadn’t yet opened their door when “a patrol deputy observed a vehicle driving in a reckless manner.
That prompted the cop to hit his “lights and sirens” switch in an attempt to conduct a routine traffic stop. But the driver of the errant vehicle, later identified as local area resident Reynaldo Estrada, failed to yield, whereupon his car “lost control and crashed into the side of a business,” causing significant damage to both city property and the retail real estate.
Promptly arriving at the scene where Estrada’s car was now a steaming mess, the cop spotted Estrada as he took off running. With additional patrol units quickly on scene, an area search was initiated which failed to flush anyone out.
At that point, detectives on the scene accessed surveillance video which “multiple residents in the nearby area” operate from their homes, connected the local Sheriff’s office. It didn’t take long from that point on to identify Estrada, who was identified as actively on California State Parole for—of all things—Reckless Evading in a Vehicle.
Later in the day, on the afternoon of April 15th, Estrada was contacted at his residence and was taken into custody. He was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of parole violation, hit and run driving, reckless driving, and resisting a peace officer. He remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
