Attacks Along Boardwalk Stir Fear in Ventura

The spiked iron bars that separate her condominium pool from the Ventura Promenade took on new significance for the 64-year-old woman Tuesday.

Twice in six days, innocent victims have been violently attacked along the boardwalk that runs from the Ventura County Fairgrounds to the Ventura Pier.

“We’re barricaded here,” the fenced-in woman said in frustration, glancing periodically toward the boardwalk and requesting that her name not be used for fear of retaliation.

Not far from the woman’s condominium Monday night, a U.S. Army sergeant on a moonlit jog was beaten and shot near the heart after struggling with as many as 15 suspected gang members, authorities said.

Miraculously, they said, he was not seriously injured.

Sgt. Gabriel Ochoa, 48, a records clerk who jogs regularly, was starting to run along the boardwalk just after 10 p.m. near Figueroa Street when 10 to 15 suspected gang members demanded money, police said.

When he told them he had no money, the suspects began to hit and kick Ochoa, who fought back until one of them fired a small-caliber handgun at him, Sgt. Bob Anderson said.

Although wounded in the chest, Ochoa was able to run west toward Figueroa while the suspects scattered, Anderson said.

Not long afterward, police caught two suspected gang members on the north side of the Ash Street pedestrian bridge that spans the Ventura Freeway.

One, a 17-year-old Ventura boy, had been named on a previous felony arrest warrant for failing to appear in court, authorities said. He and the other suspect, a 15-year-old Ventura boy, were booked into Juvenile Hall in Ventura on suspicion of attempted murder and attempted robbery.

Ochoa, who has spent five years at the Army Armory in Ventura, was released Tuesday from Ventura County Medical Center.

“He was lucky,” said Walter Shelton, his supervisor at the Armory.

Last week, a Ventura man on a family outing by the pier thwarted a carjacker who threatened to drive off in his car with his baby still in her infant seat.

Enraged, the father disarmed the knife-welding suspect and fought him before the man ran off.

Earlier that same night, three joggers on the boardwalk were accosted by the same suspect before they ran from him, police said.

On Tuesday, Ainsley Laing, 35, a resident of Indonesia on vacation in Ventura, stopped while jogging along the Promenade and said, “I won’t run at night, not after what I’ve been hearing about this place.”

Strollers, runners and others who were visiting the Promenade Tuesday said they were a little more careful because of the attacks, a little more apt to look over their shoulder. Many said they would not be out after dark.

“We’re very nervous about coming down here now,” said Stan Wallman, 67, of Ventura, who was walking with his companion, Sophia Simkover, 72.

“We love coming down here at the end of the day, but when daylight savings time ends and it gets dark soon, we’ll stop coming,” Wallman said.

Surfer Glen Taylor, 45, his wet suit dripping in the bright sunlight, said, “If I see a group of people, especially when it’s dark, I avoid them.”

His friend, Don Andre, 45, said the city should have never built the boardwalk because it draws transients, gang-bangers and other “evil dudes.”

Sgt. Anderson, who supervises the city’s major crimes division, said those who victimize people along the boardwalk, particularly gang members, “have no sense of responsibility, no sense of the value of life.”