In brief

Two die in Simi Valley shooting

Local and national media reported that an Oct. 9 shooting at Am-Pac Tire Pros in Simi Valley claimed the life of Susan Sutcliffe, a 53-year-old Simi Valley resident and mother, as well as 29-year-old Robert Becerra, also of Simi Valley, whose fatal wound was described by police as “self-inflicted.”

Am-Pac owner Henry John Heeber IV and Am-Pac employee Albert Ramirez were injured in the attack, which occurred at approximately 7:30 a.m. According to police reports, Heeber sustained shots in both arms and is classified as being in fair condition. Ramirez was shot in the stomach and, after surgery, was categorized as being in serious condition.

They are currently classified as being in fair and serious condition, respectively.

At the time of publication, the police had not yet identified the gunman.

According to reports, Sutcliffe was seated outside Am-Pac as she waited for a leaking tire on her Chevy Astro van to be repaired.

The motive of the shooting rampage is currently unknown, but police have rejected the idea that it was a robbery. Sutcliffe’s husband, Michael, denies that Sutcliffe knew her attacker. He has stated to various media outlets that his wife was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

The Simi Valley Police Department did not return a request from the Reporter for information about the attack.

Freedom foxes

The last of one of America\\\'s rarest mammals, the endangered island fox, was released from a captive breeding facility on Santa Cruz Island Oct. 8. The house cat-sized apex predator of the Channel Islands National Park had been captive-bred on the largest of the Channel Islands since 2002.

Drawn to Santa Cruz for its feral pig population, golden eagles nearly wiped out island fox populations across the northern chain. San Miguel Island went from 400 island foxes down to 15, and Santa Cruz went from 1500 animals to less than 100 in 1999.

\\\"For island ecosystems it\\\'s easy to upset the apple cart,\\\" said Tim Coonan, terrestrial biologist at the national park. 

However, an aggressive captive breeding program led by the NPS, The Nature Conservancy, Institute for Wildlife Studies and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has brought the wild populations back to over 300 foxes on Santa Cruz and 115 on San Miguel. Captive-bred island fox numbers are still too low on Santa Rosa Island. Feral pigs have been eradicated, eliminating a food source for the raptors, which have been trapped and released back on the mainland. In turn, bald eagles have been returned to the islands in an effort to thwart golden eagles trying to take residency in the future. Bald eagles eat fish, not island foxes.

\\\"This is an exciting time on Santa Cruz to witness this milestone of the recovery of these diminutive foxes,\\\" said Lotus Vermeer, the Nature Conservancy director on Santa Cruz. \\\"This marks the closure of captive breeding on the island.\\\"

Here comes the sun

A local solar electric system installer announced Oct. 8 that it completed set-up of an 11 kilowatt residential solar system this summer. Ojai Solar Electric, which is actually based in Ventura, built the grid-tied arrays totaling 80 solar modules in the Upper Ojai Valley, beneath the Topa Topa bluffs.

Completed in mid-summer the system has generated a total of 3.5-Megawatthours of electricity to date. A statement from the company says the system has already cut 29 tons of carbon dioxide emissions that would have been caused by other forms of power-generation. As a comparison, the average Ventura home consumes between 4,000 and 5,000 kilowatt-hours each year, the generation of which causes 45 tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Additionally, because the new array is tied to the state’s power grid, any excess electricity generated beyond what the customer uses is sold back to Southern California Edison.

“[The customer’s] meter actually does spin backwards most of the time. It’s very cool,” said Daniel Eshoo of Ojai Solar.

Violence rages in Ventura

After a weekend that included a robbery at a gas station, a stabbing at the Sans Souci bar in Downtown Ventura, and a gang-related.assault on the Westside early Oct. 7, Ventura police reported a gang-related shooting Oct. 9 in Downtown Ventura.

According to police, a car full of suspects stopped near Josue Gonzalez and Daniel Martinez as they were walking on the 600 block of Poli Street. Two suspects left the car, one, a Hispanic male in his twenties, allegedly tried to punch Martinez and the second, a white male in his twenties, shot Gonzalez in the face. The car then fled the scene. A source close to the Reporter working near the scene of the crime confirmed that he heard a gunshot and witnessed the victims running away from the scene toward Main Street. Gonzalez was later brought to Community Memorial Hospital, where he is in stable condition. His injuries do not appear to be life threatening, and police report that statements at the scene by the suspects suggest the attack was gang-related.