Breaking news: Hurriquake, protester's death, retired officer's rampage top list in 2023
Editor's note: This article is the fifth in a series highlighting The Star's top stories of the year. Listed in no particular order, these news events were chosen by the staff and organized by topic.
From violent deaths to strange weather, 2023 was a banner year for breaking news in Ventura County.
Crime offered some unusual twists as jurors acquitted a man of murder in a brutal double stabbing in the Ojai area and an arrest was made in the 26-year-old shooting of a Thousand Oaks bank teller. In April, an alumnus of Westlake High drove into a crowd of students, killing a 15-year-old he didn't know.
In August, a retired Ventura police officer killed three people at an Orange County biker bar. In November, a pro-Israel protester died after striking his head on the pavement as demonstrators on both sides of the Israel-Hamas conflict gathered in Thousand Oaks.
Other major stories included a train derailment, agricultural quarantines and freak weather.
Amtrak train derails in Moorpark
A Seattle-bound Amtrak train derailed in rural Moorpark in June after colliding with a Ventura County water truck.
The Coast Starlight train had about 200 aboard, though only about 16 people were transported to local hospitals. The water truck driver ― a county Public Works Agency employee — sustained serious injuries and was taken to a trauma center.
Three of the 14 train cars derailed, but they remained upright. The train left Los Angeles the morning of June 28. It's next stop was in Oxnard.
Retired VPD sergeant goes on rampage
A retired Ventura Police Department sergeant was identified as the gunman in a mass shooting at an Orange County biker bar on Aug. 23.
John Snowling, 59, killed three and injured several others, including his estranged wife, at the popular Cook's Corner bar in rural Trabuco Canyon. Sheriff's deputies shot and killed him at the scene.
Snowling had worked for the Ventura department from 1986 until his retirement in 2014. He had been living in Ohio at the time of the shootings, officials said, but owned a house in Camarillo he sometimes visited that was searched by Orange County authorities after the incident.
String of crimes ends with student's death
A local man's alleged crime spree unfolded over the course of about an hour on a spring afternoon, starting with a violent attack in a Simi Valley Walmart and ending with the death of a Westlake High School student.
The victim, 15-year-old Wesley Welling, was killed when the suspect drove his Toyota Camry into a group of teens standing near a bus stop outside the school on April 18, prosecutors say. Several other students were injured.
The suspect, Austin Allen Eis, 25, had attended the school but didn't know the victims, authorities say. In Simi, he allegedly stabbed a Walmart employee before fleeing to his parents' Camarillo home, where he pointed a gun and knife at them. He then drove to the Thousand Oaks school.
Eis faces a murder charge for Welling's death, 15 counts of attempted murder for the other students and a raft of various felony and misdemeanor counts. He has pleaded not guilty to all. His next court appearance, a pretrial conference, is scheduled for March 20.
State issues quarantines due to invasive insects
State officials placed parts of eastern Ventura and western Los Angeles counties under what is expected to be a months-long quarantine after two Queensland fruit flies were found in Thousand Oaks this fall.
The first Queensland quarantine in the western hemisphere came during a record year for fruit fly detections statewide, officials said. To try to stop the fly's spread, local growers in the 90-square-mile zone face strict rules and residents are urged not to move homegrown fruits and vegetables from their properties. The insect native to Australia targets scores of fruit and vegetable crops, from strawberries to lemons.
It wasn't the only insect invading the region. Asian citrus psyllids first were spotted in Ventura County in 2010, but officials found no trace of the long-feared bacterial disease they carry called huanglongbing, referred to as HLB or citrus greening, until September.
Once discovered in a Santa Paula backyard, the state declared a citrus quarantine across roughly 101 square miles of Ventura County.
Protestor's death highlights tensions
The death of pro-Israel demonstrator Paul Kessler in Thousand Oaks ignited local tensions amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. Kessler, 69, died Nov. 6 after an altercation when he fell and hit his head. The incident happened during competing protests at the intersection of Westlake and Thousand Oaks boulevards.
The following week, the Ventura County District Attorney's Office charged Moorpark resident Loay Alnaji, 50, with involuntary manslaughter and battery. Prosecutors said they had not yet found evidence of a hate crime. Alnaji, a Moorpark College computer science professor, has pleaded not guilty.
In the aftermath, many local Jews and Muslims have grown more apprehensive. The Conejo Valley Interfaith Association has proposed speaking events to promote understanding — an idea that has received a mixed reception from both sides.
Ojai gets hit with a 'hurriquake'
As the dregs of Hurricane Hilary steamed north this August, maybe the last thing anyone in Ojai expected was a brick-breaking, glass-shattering earthquake. But shake, the earth did, even as Hilary, downgraded to a tropical storm, dumped rain across the county.
The so-called “hurriquake” hit mid-afternoon Aug. 20, rattling wine bottles off of grocery store shelves and dislodging a bell in the central tower at nearby Thomas Aquinas College.
Though the 5.1-magnitude temblor caused some structural damage, county authorities said none of it was major and no one sustained significant injuries.
Man beats murder charge in double-stabbing case
Jurors in May convicted an Ojai Valley man of involuntary manslaughter, but not the more serious charges of first- or second-degree murder, for fatally stabbing two women in 2019.
Shawn Shirck was sentenced in June to six years and four months in prison. But with credits for time already served in county jail, the 29-year-old was freed from custody shortly after his sentencing.
Shirck killed 59-year-old Margaret Dahl and her 82-year-old mother, Phyllis Porter, at the Oak View home where they lived, which was owned by Shirck's father. Jurors agreed with the defense argument that Shirck couldn't form the intent to commit murder because he had consumed too much alcohol and that he was unconscious even though he was moving physically.
Prosecutors had argued Shirck was conscious based on the crimes, the fact he kept attacking the victims when they tried to fight back and his efforts to conceal what he had done.
The sentencing judge, who gave Shirck the maximum term, said it was among the most gruesome cases he had ever dealt with in his years of handling murder cases in Ventura County.
Stories of 2023
TODAY: Breaking news
Sunday: Photos
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Breaking news: Train derails, protester dies, more in 2023
