Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Ventura County Man Arrested On Hate Crime Charge

A Ventura County man is facing hate crime, and other charges after a bizarre series of incidents Wednesday.

Oxnard Police say they received a call just before five Wednesday night about a man bothering some teenagers on the 100 block of West Esplanade Drive. When officers arrived, they say Rafael Lopez of Port Hueneme tried to get into a car parked in a nearby parking lot with adults and children inside.

The people in the car fought off the 25 year old man, and he fled. They told police Lopez was armed with a gun.

A woman who saw what had happened tackled Lopez in the parking lot. He dropped the gun, and she was able told hold him until police arrived. The original teens who reported Lopez say he used racial slurs, so he was arrested on a hate crime charge, as well as more than a half dozen other criminal counts.

Lance Orozco has been News Director of KCLU since 2001, providing award-winning coverage of some of the biggest news events in the region, including the Thomas and Woolsey brush fires, the deadly Montecito debris flow, the Borderline Bar and Grill attack, and Ronald Reagan's funeral. 
Related Stories