The investigation is continuing into what police are calling a murder-suicide involving a retired judge in Ventura County.
Ventura Police were called to the 5500 block of Dorsey Street at around 11 Sunday night. Officers heard gunshots, and called for a SWAT team.
Hostage negotiators were able to talk to a man inside. After a two hour standoff, they heard more shots, and the SWAT team went inside. They found a seriously wounded woman in a closet, who later died. They also found the body of a man, identified as Ventura County Superior Court Judge Herbert Curtis III. Curtis had been a municipal and Superior Court judge in the County for more than 20 years before retiring in 2007. He was the county’s first African-American judge.
Police say he had been in a relationship with the woman, identified as Patricia Payne of Ventura.