Photo: Stock Image
Early in the evening of August 17th, detectives attached to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office West County Special Enforcement Unit—tasked with investigating violent crimes and illegal firearms—observed a breach of traffic regulations and conducted a traffic stop on a car driven by 18-year-old Oxnard resident Saul Barajas. Accompanying Barajas were two juvenile male passengers. When Barajas initially failed to yield to the red lights and siren behind him, the cops conducted an aggressive “traffic enforcement stop” and brought the car to an immediate halt.
According to VCSD spokesman Sgt. Beau Rodriguez, a juvenile passenger was removed from the vehicle and was quickly found to be “in possession of a loaded, semi- automatic firearm with an extended ammunition magazine.” The kid immediately bolted in an attempt to flee on foot but “was apprehended without incident.”
The second juvenile passenger was extricated from the car, and he, too, was found to be in possession of “another loaded, semi-automatic firearm.”
All three young men were taken into custody, whereupon the two underage suspects were transported to the Ventura County Juvenile Justice Center and Barajas was taken to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on multiple felony firearm violations.
