Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, Hispanic/Latino, was shot and killed on the night of May 27, 2025, in east Bakersfield after deputies were called around 9:40 p.m. to the 1600 block of Flower Street. Inside a marijuana dispensary, deputies found two men with gunshot wounds; Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, and another victim, Damien Joseph Bullard, 26, were pronounced dead at the scene.
The Kern County Coroner’s Office publicly identified Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, and confirmed the date and location, marking the case as one of two homicides that night on Flower Street.
Detectives with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office learned that four males entered the dispensary, followed by Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, and Bullard. A verbal argument broke out inside the business, and several shots were fired. The assailants ran from the store and left the area in a gold four-door sedan driven by a female, as described by investigators piecing together the movements around the storefront just off Virginia Street.
In the days that followed, authorities announced multiple arrests connected to the double homicide. Initial reports noted at least two arrests; subsequent updates from the Sheriff’s Office and local outlets detailed five suspects in custody in connection with the killings of Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, and Bullard: Darwin Young, 20; Terrance Thompson, 18; Nancy Ruiz, 20; and two juveniles. Coverage also reported that Darwin Young had been paroled on May 21, 2025—six days before the shootings—while Young and Ruiz pleaded not guilty as the case moved through court.
What began as a dispute inside a neighborhood cannabis storefront ended with the death of Anthony Victor Ochoa, 37, male, and another man on the tiled floor of a late-night business, the detectives’ chalk marks and evidence bags tracing the path of the argument out to the street and into a waiting sedan. The ensuing arrests, built from witness accounts and the coroner’s identifications, set the stage for a prosecution that will hinge on reconstructing those minutes inside the dispensary and the roles each suspect is alleged to have played.
