VENTURA : ‘Sandbag’ Gun Used to Subdue Patient

Ventura police used a newly acquired “sandbag shotgun” to subdue a mental patient menacingly wielding a four-foot metal rod, officers said.

The 33-year-old man was committing himself voluntarily to the county’s inpatient psychiatric center about 2:30 p.m. when he suddenly grabbed a fire extinguisher and climbed atop the two-story building adjacent to Ventura County Medical Center on Loma Vista Road, Officer Mark Stadler said.

Stadler said when police arrived, the man grabbed the rod and then climbed down from the roof. He was shot in the abdomen with a silver-dollar-sized sandbag as he stood in the facility’s courtyard and waved the rod at officers, Stadler said.

The shotgun blast knocked the wind out of the man and left him with a bruise, but otherwise did not injure him, Stadler said. He said it was only the third or fourth time Ventura police used the sandbag shotgun, purchased earlier this year.

“This time last year we probably would have had to use batons,” Stadler said.

The man was examined at the medical center and returned to the psychiatric unit. Because he is a mental health patient, police refused to release his name. He was described as a transient frequently seen in downtown Ventura.