Man Killed After Chase Identified

VENTURA —  The man fatally shot by police after leading authorities on a 20-minute chase through downtown Ventura this weekend was identified Sunday as a 28-year-old transient with family living in San Luis Obispo County.

Jason Todd Hayley was struck by a shotgun blast in the back at 6:18 p.m. Saturday near the corner of Poli and Oak streets, after he brandished a revolver, burst through several downtown businesses and, at times, ran from rooftop to rooftop, authorities said.

According to the Ventura coroner’s office, Hayley was pronounced dead at 6:58 p.m. at the Ventura County Medical Center, where he was taken after the shooting.

“He put hundreds of lives in danger. We don’t know what his intentions were, but anyone around a crazed guy pointing a gun is in danger,” said Ventura Police Sgt. Gary McCaskill.

It was unclear whether Hayley, whom witnesses said was seen pointing the gun at himself, had any drugs or alcohol in his system. A coroner’s spokesman, however, said Sunday there was “no visible evidence” that he had used drugs or alcohol prior to being shot, though a toxicology report would not be ready for several weeks.

Ventura police officials on Sunday would not detail the circumstances leading to Hayley’s death. They said Hayley had a criminal record and had been arrested previously, but declined to elaborate.

Another transient who knew Hayley said he saw the gunman during Saturday’s melee. “I made eye-to-eye contact with him, and I felt he was going to kill himself or someone else,” said the homeless man, who asked not to be identified.

“He was known on the street for being dangerous, and his nickname was ‘The Shadow,’ ” said the man, adding that Hayley was known to live in his truck in Ventura.

In January, Hayley was the victim of an assault on Ventura Avenue. He was beaten and stabbed, but police at the time said he was “uncooperative” when questioned about his assailants or their motive for the assault.

Saturday’s deadly events began about 5:55 p.m. when Hayley was arguing with an unidentified woman near the Greyhound bus station at 219 E. Thompson Blvd.

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When a police officer came upon the pair to question Hayley, he began running north toward Main Street.

The chase began as hundreds of people were gathering for the start of the city’s annual Artwalk celebration along Main Street.

Artwalk organizer Donna Granata was standing at the corner of Santa Clara and Santa Barbara streets checking on a band that was beginning to perform when she saw Hayley running along California Street followed by about two dozen armed officers and barking police dogs.

“Oh my God, he’s got a gun!” Granata said she and several other people shouted. Hayley then ducked into the Ventura Inn, Granata said.

“All I saw was a sea of firearms,” Granata said. “There were many, many, many officers, and every single one of them had their firearms drawn. It was totally surreal, like something out of a movie. I just kept thinking, ‘Oh please God, please let no one get hurt.’ ”

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Despite the incident, the Artwalk went smoothly, Granata said. An estimated 15,000 people attended the outdoor festival, more than in previous years, she said.

“It was very intense for those of us who did witness it,” Granata said. “But all in all, it was a very successful Artwalk.”

Delfino and Joanna Lopez-Rojas, the owners of Joannafina’s Mexican Cafe at 420 E. Main St., watched as Hayley hopped from rooftop to rooftop carrying what they said was a large revolver.

As police ordered the crowds to go inside the nearest business, hoards of people started filing into their 60-seat restaurant.

“People were afraid to go out at all,” Joanna Lopez-Rojas said. “People were huddled inside here; the place was packed.”

During the chase, Hayley broke through the back door of the Busy Bee Cafe, at 478 E. Main St., and ran through the restaurant.

“He knocked me out of the way,” said waitress Paula Finan. “I thought he was a customer trying to run out without paying, but then I saw the gun. . . . It was insane.”

He proceeded across the street to the Ventura Inn where he tried to kick in the door of fourth-floor resident Gene Bettis.

Bettis said Sunday he did not know Hayley and was not home when the man tried to get into his apartment.

“It’s a good thing I wasn’t home, because I’d have opened the door real quick and had a gun in my face,” Bettis said. “I have no idea why he went to my door.”

This is the second shooting involving Ventura Police Department officers in the last 10 months.

In June 1997, 29-year-old William Anthony Ramos was shot when he wrestled with police after a traffic violation and allegedly grabbed for an officer’s gun. Officers had stopped Ramos in front of Ventura’s 101 Drive-In on Telephone Road for darting in and out of traffic. A district attorney’s report concluded that the shooting “appeared to be justified.”

Previously, on Super Bowl Sunday 1997, an off-duty Ventura County sheriff’s deputy in Port Hueneme fatally shot 26-year-old Jack Dale Sexton in the back after the unarmed Oxnard man entered the home of an elderly widow.

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According to a district attorney’s report on the case, Sexton was drunk and combative, but the report said there was not enough information to determine whether the shooting was justified. The off-duty deputy was not charged with any crime.

In 1995, Ventura police had two fatal shootings in a two-month period. In May of that year, a Ventura officer shot and killed 28-year-old Ernesto Garcia after the Santa Paula man continued to swing a 3-foot-long club at officers.

A month earlier, James Anthony Zendejas, a 21-year-old man who tried to rob Ventura Avenue residents with a replica handgun, was shot and killed by an officer.

Police officials said the officer fired because he believed the robbery victims were in danger.