Roundup: Ultralight crash at Camarillo Airport, Oxnard officers boxed in, more news
Here's a roundup of recent incidents and announcements from Ventura County agencies:
Serious injuries in ultralight crash
CAMARILLO — An ultralight pilot was critically injured in a crash at the Camarillo Airport Thursday afternoon.
Ventura County Fire and Sheriff's personnel, along with ambulance crews, responded around 1:45 p.m.
The craft crashed into a structure at the edge of the airfield, said Andy VanSciver, a spokesman for the fire department.
Firefighters extricated the pilot from the wreckage. He was flown by the county's Copter 6 to Ventura County Medical Center in critical condition.
Members of the Ventura County Sheriff's aviation unit later tweeted the pilot had been stabilized at the hospital's trauma center.
Dave Nafie, deputy director of the Ventura County Airports Department, said the craft "failed to fly as intended" and landed on top of some ultralight hangars.
The crash didn't affect airport operations, he said, and there was no interruption in flight activity.
At the scene, the mangled ultralight could be seen suspended upside-down atop the row of small hangars in the 900 block of Aviation Drive, at the west end of the airport, while emergency personnel worked nearby. The craft's yellow wings drooped toward the ground.
No other details were immediately available about the pilot or the circumstances of the crash.
Unusual standoff boxes in Oxnard police
OXNARD — Patrol officers in Oxnard used non-lethal force on an armed man who allegedly boxed them in during an unrelated call Wednesday night, authorities said.
Shortly after 7:20 p.m., officers were handling a call for service in the 800 block of West Wooley Road, according to the Oxnard Police Department.
When the officers returned to their vehicles, they found their marked police units had been blocked by another vehicle.
The driver, a 38-year-old San Bernardino man, was uncooperative and claimed he was armed with a gun, according to police. He refused to obey police commands.
The department's SWAT team and crisis negotiators responded. The man ignored several commands, police say. Negotiators spoke with him for several minutes, but he turned away and tried to leave.
Officers fired less-lethal rounds, including a rubberized projectile and bean-bag rounds, to prevent the man from leaving, said Cmdr. Luis McArthur.
As he began to reach toward his pockets, police deployed a K-9 dog, Rocky, who bit the suspect before he was taken into custody.
Officers found the suspect had two loaded handguns in his immediate possession, McArthur said. They also found four loaded handgun magazines and more than 200 rounds of ammunition.
The man was treated for a dog bite at Ventura County Medical Center before he was booked into Ventura County jail on suspicion of felony firearms offenses and misdemeanor resisting arrest.
No other injuries were reported.
Former official pleads not guilty in hit-and-run
VENTURA COUNTY — The former chief spokeswoman for Ventura County government pleaded not guilty Thursday in Ventura County Superior Court in a misdemeanor hit-and-run case from June.
The Ventura County District Attorney's Office had filed three misdemeanor counts Tuesday against Ashley Bautista, who was 40 at the time of the incident. Charges include driving under the influence of alcohol, driving with blood alcohol level above .08% and hit-and-run driving, court records show. Prosecutors also filed a special enhancement alleging she drove with blood alcohol level of .15% or more. California's legal limit is generally .08%.
At Thursday's arraignment her attorney, Adam Pearlman, entered a not guilty plea on all counts and denied all special allegations. Bautista was not present in court.
On the night of June 17, Bautista allegedly rear-ended another vehicle at the intersection of Paseo de Playa and Harbor Boulevard, according to the Ventura Police Department. Authorities allege she continued driving after the collision and was pulled over about two miles away from the crash site. No injuries were reported. Bautista resigned from the high-profile government post after the arrest.
A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for 9 a.m. on Sept. 20 in courtroom 10.
Items may be updated if new information becomes available.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Ultralight crash at Camarillo Airport, more Ventura County news
