Community Mourns

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrested Austin Eis, the 24-year-old suspected of what can only be described as an hour-long rampage that ended with the death of 15-year-old Wesley Welling.

Eis is being charged “for a string of crimes committed [April 18, 2023] in three Ventura County cities,” the Sheriff’s office announced in a statement. The charges include murder, attempted murder, attempted robbery, burglary, brandishing a firearm, resisting arrest, kidnapping, felony use of tear gas and assault with a deadly weapon.

A Life Cut Short: Wesley Welling, 15, died of injuries when suspect Austin Eis, an earlier graduate of Westlake High School, drove into a group of students on Thousand Oaks Blvd. Eis is being held without bail.

The rampage began in Simi Valley, where Eis is suspected of pepper-spraying and then stabbing a Walmart employee in his 60s at the store on Cochran St. He reportedly assaulted another employee, attempting to drag her out of the store before fleeing in a white Toyota Camry at approximately 2:42 p.m. Officers were called to the scene, and a description of the vehicle was provided by witnesses.

From Walmart, Eis drove to his parents’ home in Camarillo, where he continued threats of violence while brandishing a firearm. Police were called to the home, but the son had already left in the car again.

According to LinkedIn profiles, Eis’s father, Mark, is a senior IT manager at Amgen. His stepmom, Jennifer Stokely Eis, is an out-of-state director for the Northeast Arizona Native Democrats. The family relocated from Arizona to Ventura County in 2013. Jennifer co-founded the local activist group Indivisible Conejo and, in 2017, was a vocal proponent of keeping literature in schools which many say is inappropriate for minors, according to school board records. The family has made no public statements regarding their son’s arrest.

After leaving his parents’ home, Austin Eis then drove to Westlake, where he is charged with intentionally turning his vehicle onto the eastbound sidewalk, hitting four students who were waiting for the city bus near the Lakeview Canyon Rd. intersection at approximately 3:30 p.m. The next bus was scheduled to arrive at 3:37 p.m. Eis became trapped in the vehicle, which had flipped over.

Eis graduated from Westlake High School in 2017. Records show he competed in track meet events, including discus and shot put. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo last year. Sheriff’s deputies believe Eis was currently homeless and living out of his car.

Police have said there is no known connection between Eis and the Walmart employees or the Westlake High School students. Arraignment was postponed until May 19. Until then, the judge ordered Eis to be held without bail.

Wesley Welling

Kelly Welling’s daughter, Hannah, called to tell her mother that she and her brother Wesley had been in an accident. Hannah and Wesley had been waiting with other students for the bus that would pick them up after school across from Westlake High School on Thousand Oaks Blvd.

Kelly told ABC News, “I get the call from my daughter Hannah. There was an accident, and he was unconscious, and they were doing CPR, and they did CPR the whole way to the hospital. That is where he passed. By some miracle, my daughter wasn’t standing right next to him because it could have been both of them.”

The mother of three recalled her words to her son earlier that morning. “I said, ‘I’m proud of you. I love you. Have a good day,’ and that was the last thing I said to him.”

Kelly continued, “I’m just concerned about his sister because she witnessed the accident. I just can’t believe it’s real. I’m expecting him to walk down the stairs and still hear his voice.”