FILLMORE, CA — September 3, 2026 — Gunfire erupted near a Fillmore neighborhood park on the evening of March 16, 2025, prompting an 18-month-long investigation that ultimately led to the September 2nd arrest of 24-year-old Piru resident Kristian Morfin.
According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Cpt. Eduardo Malagon, the shooting under investigation was reported in a City of Fillmore public park “where juveniles had gathered.”
Witnesses at the scene that evening reported that “a man stepped out of one vehicle and chased another vehicle” moments before a gunshot was heard. Deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Fillmore Patrol Station arrived within minutes and found evidence confirming that a firearm had been discharged.
The Fillmore Detective Unit then took over the investigation, ultimately identifying Morfin–a known criminal street gang member–as a suspect. Detectives obtained a warrant on May 8, 2025, authorizing searches of Morfin, his home and his vehicle. Investigators contacted him the following day as he arrived at his workplace in Ventura.
During a search of the vehicle, detectives discovered a stolen and loaded 9 mm semiautomatic handgun, whereupon Morfin was arrested on weapons allegations but was later released while investigators awaited laboratory testing on the handgun.
That scientific lab research “provided an additional link between the firearm, Morfin and the shooting.”
Fillmore detectives then secured and served a felony arrest warrant on September 2nd and took Morfin into custody. He was transported to Ventura County Jail, where he was booked on charges of grossly negligent discharge of a firearm, possessing a controlled substance while armed, carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle, carrying a loaded firearm and unlawful transfer of a firearm.
Morfin remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
– by F. Scott Faulkner
