Roger
10:00 p.m., May 7, 2019
Suspect Located Deceased Following Shootout
At approximately 12:45 p.m. today, May 7, 2019, Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD) officers including members of its SWAT Team and Crisis Negotiation Team were conducting a high-risk search and arrest warrant for a known suspect at an apartment located off Camino De Vida and Turnpike Road. During the warrant service, gunfire was exchanged between the suspect and SBPD officers. An emergency notification was sent to residents in the area to shelter in place. Due to the close proximity to the incident, San Marcos High School was placed on lockdown.
A large number of resources responded to assist including members from the Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Team, a Santa Barbara County Sheriff/Fire Air Support helicopter, K9 teams from both the Sheriff’s Office and SBPD, the Sheriff’s Bomb Squad, Santa Barbara County Fire Department and American Medical Response. California Highway Patrol officers responded to assist with traffic control and due to the concern for public safety, the 101 Freeway was shut down in both directions from Turnpike Road to Patterson Avenue.
As Santa Barbara Police officers attempted to make contact with the suspect, residents in the apartment complex were safely evacuated out of the area. The Sheriff’s BearCats, Jail Transportation Bus and several MTD buses were utilized to transport residents to a safe location.
After an extended period of time passed without any response from the suspect, the Sheriff’s Bomb Squad robot was sent inside to determine the status of the suspect. At approximately 3:40 p.m. it was determined the suspect was deceased. The suspect has been identified as being 32-year-old Francisco Anthony Alcaraz Jr., a local resident. Next of kin has been notified.
Because the incident occurred in the unincorporated area of Santa Barbara County, the Sheriff’s Office is investigating the officer involved shooting. Members of the Sheriff’s Forensics Team and Department of Justice Crime Lab are processing the crime scene and gathering evidence.
Due to the active investigation, no additional information is being released at this time. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Division at 805-681-4150. To leave an anonymous tip, please call 805-681-4171 or go to our website at https://www.sbsheriff.org/home/anonymous-tip/.
Update by edhat staff
5:20 p.m., May 7, 2019
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office announced residents at the Positano Apartments and Camino De Vida Apartments can return to their residence, with the exception of the units located immediately adjacent to the unit where the suspect was located.
A Red Cross Shelter is located at the Goleta Community Center on Hollister Ave for those displaced.
According to scanner traffic, the suspect was found deceased, although law enforcement has not yet confirmed this.
Highway 101 and surrounding areas have been reopened but there still may be traffic in the area.
Edhat will update this article with more information as soon as it is available.
Update by edhat staff
According to Santa Barbara Police Department (SBPD) Public Information Officer Anthony Wagner, officers conducted a high risk search warrant of a wanted subject on Camino De Vida around 12:45 p.m. Tuesday.
Officers set a perimeter around the Positano Apartment complex. The wanted subject fired multiple shots at police officers from the apartment. Officers are maintaining their perimeter while attempting to make contact with the subject inside the apartment to surrender peacefully, said Wagner.
Residents in or near the Positano Apartment complex are being asked to shelter in place.
San Marcos High School is currently placed on lockdown but Wagner stated the students are not in immediate danger as the subject is within a well-established perimeter created by law enforcement.
The SBPD is joined by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, SWAT, K-9 units, AMR ambulance, and a helicopter.
Highway 101 is shut down near Fairview and traffic is being diverted to Hollister Ave around the incident area.
Edhat will update this article with more information as it becomes available.
Update by an edhat reader
A text alert has gone out to residents in the Camino De Vida and Turnpike areas, across the street from San Marcos High School, to shelter in place.
Livestream provided by KEYT News
Santa Barbara Police and SWAT are near a residence which sounds like Camino De Vida near Turnpike. San Marcos High School is on LOCKDOWN.
Sheriffs are not in the apartment with the suspect the glass breaking was coming from inside the apartment.
Shooter has children I would have gave up along time ago don’t let your kids live with this the rest of their lives…
All the way to Fairview? I could see at Turnpike but Fairview..?
OKDOKY Thanks for the info..
any reason why they would serve a search warrant to a high-profile subject in the middle of the day next door to a school?
Thank you Roger.
Apparently, this guy went from Subsidized JAIL Housing, being released and going into a Subsidized Public Housing Apartment… Hats of to Santa Barbara Housing Authority for providing housing to wanted felons.
Thank you. I thought the apartment complexes across the street would he considered next door. My bad, I apologize.
You watch, you follow. You do a felony arrest in a safer location, not next to a school. This puts people at risk. It is the OPPOSITE of what some are praising them for.
It is literally across the street
Big thank you to Roger for helping to keep us informed in-the-moment.
Took me half hour to get home, approx 2 miles
If no gunfire could have made it to the school from that complex, then no gunfire could have made it to the freeway. I suspect you will argue in favor of the closure of the freeway despite that comment though.
@COASTWATCH I am not a wanted felon I am a disabled adult an apology would be nice toward Housing and those of us who are not criminals when can I expect that? Or will this comment be deleted too in favor of someone putting down handicapped elderly people?
Who said they closed the freeway b/c of gunfire? The freeway was likely closed in case he tried to escape or if there was a chase. You can close a freeway easily and keep people away – the school not so much if the kids are there and they put them on lockdown so what exactly is your beef here? Maybe instead of criticizing, why don’t you explain what YOU believe would be a better time and why.
Oh wow. This was pretty scary. Sounds like only the suspect was killed. 5pm news on Keyt going on now.
You live two miles from your place of work? Commuting to work via bike not an option?
Looks like it’s time for all the armchair policing experts to arrive and shoot the survivors.
Roger, I have no issue with disabled or handicapped in subsidized housing- Subsidizing housing for all the under the table or unpaid Ritz Carlton-Bacarra employees…yeah sort of… Felons released from prison…yeah. Bottom line is there is ZERO auditing from the SB Housing Authority on who and how many are actually living in these taxpayer supported housing units…
Meant to say UNDER-PAID hotel and restaurant/ service workers… The Ritz Carlton Barcarra is a classic local example- WE are subsidizing their business operations by housing their employees who are under paid… Yet local hotels charge $400 a night and up ($400 is the cheap end rooms in town)
Will there was 4 in this unit now one is dead that leaves 3, so now there are 3 residents of that apartment a mother and 2 children I doubt very much they will continue living there after this sounds like that makes you happy The mother and two children were not felons released from prison. Felons released from prison did their time occasionally they screw up but the family should not have to pay for it. Housing does keep track of law breaking in their units.
I was mad being stuck in traffic until I got home and saw the outcome on the news.
HEY CALIFORNIANS…. Why is this a surprise…? You all voted for more lenient laws and early releases of 10’s of 1000’s of convicted felons from our State Prisons… You get what you vote for. Thank your uber-liberal State Representatives and Uber liberal State Attorney General (at the time) Kamala Harris… It’s laughable if it wasn’t so sad- The once “Golden State” is no longer.
The traffic mess all around Foothill and Cathedral Oaks was huge. What might have happened if there had been a fire, earthquake, medical emergency in that area at that time?
CHP should give extra consideration to this before closing 101.
Yes Coastwatch, “The Golden State” sadly is long gone and the lunatics have taken over the asylum. What we’re experiencing as citizens are the liberals, and the elected politicians thereof, claiming it’s better to govern with a self-appointed “moral compass” than to look at the facts, protect the citizens, and uphold both our state Constitution and the U.S. Constitution, which is their sworn duty. Our Governor is a prime example of this as he states he can’t “morally” uphold Capital Punishment, even though the voting majority of our state rejected any notion to repeal the death penalty. No doubt we will see more and more of these incidents such as what occurred yesterday. And for those that use the weak statement “Move out of state if you don’t like it here,” all I can say is that is one of the most defeatist suggestions I have ever heard.
“If you don’t like it here you can move”. Now, that’s really solving the problem isn’t it?
“If you don’t like it here you can move”. Now, that’s really solving the problem, isn’t it? In addition to those that have already left, I have a funny feeling that many others are contemplating that very notion. For those that wish to stay, good luck with future next door neighbors such as the recently deceased, but obviously outstanding citizen, Francisco Anthony Alcaraz Jr. I’m sure it’s society’s fault that led him to a life of crime and his very unfortunate demise. Perhaps if we had more gun laws on the books this wouldn’t have happened!
Yes, it is very easy to close a freeway. Where is the consideration of tens of thousands of taxpaying residents when inaccurate threat assessments seem to be the rule and not the exception?
Twice this week S.B. has come to a grinding halt. Once for a bag of cloth, & once to serve a warrant for a violent felon across the street from a high school that SBPD should have waited until the kids were gone and out of danger.
The CHP gave every concern for people yesterday considering this felon had a high powered weapon in his possession, which if used could harm drivers on the freeway. During 55 years here in S.B. we have been in numerous fires. Evacuated four times. The CHP – police departments – firefighters – animal rescue and forestry service were always reliable, helpful and considerate . My gratitude to these people who risk their lives every day to keep us safe.
HACSB is in no way connected to the Positano apartments. HACSB provides housing to a legion of seniors and hard workers. One cannot control one’s neighbors or renters and incidents can occur in any neighborhood, irregardless of the social economic situation.
Coastwatch, remember this is a Sanctuary State and City! 🙂
Yes, the traffic was horrendous and, like many, wonder what would happen in a large emergency such as a major earthquake or, god forbid, a nuclear accident. I don’t think Hollywood has gotten it wrong when they have portrayed the chaos and violence among the masses that would result. However, I digress. The real problem here is that a felon was released from prison, only to create another problem after release. How many times do we see and this type of thing? There is no fear of the law here because they all know our government’s soft take on punishment will allow them to walk free from jail in a few years, if not a few months. Sorry if I offend anyone, but felons, especially violent ones such as this, should be locked up for good (or executed if the crime warrants it) and NOT RELEASED BACK INTO THE GENERAL PUBLIC. And the fact that this all occurred on our dime only adds to my anger.
Positano Apartments are featured prominently on the HACSB webpage. The 3 strikes law was supposed to identify the most dangerous people and keep them in jail but then people started going to jail for 30 years for stealing a pizza as their 3rd strike. They will never be able to identify the people who won’t reoffend and the ones that will with 100% accuracy. And the people that want to lock everyone up forever are the ones that hate paying taxes to fund an expensive program like that. Life is complex.
Does anyone know why we are housing felons across from a school? And as far as the “Three-Strike” overturn, we are not talking about pizza theft here. More than 75% of felons who are released from prison commit another felony within five years after release. I’d rather pay to keep them locked up for good rather than know most of them will commit another serious crime after they go back into society. Like I said “No Fear of the law= No fear of punishment.”
Under the new police leadership, police are now coddling criminals and not keeping us safe.
Suspect died -don’t know if he was killed by police fire, or killed himself.
The Positano Apartment sign says it is associated with HACSB, logo right there in the photo. Please explain.
this is because our system is a wreck. it doesn’t “rehab” felons, it makes them worse and allows them time to conspire with others. the 3 strikes law was just as lame as the war on drugs (pot). waste of money and time and put many people into the system that didn’t belong there.
closing the 101 for something that wasn’t near the 101 was just ignorant and a poor decision on the CHP’s behalf
um no he didn’t…what do you know about firearms? there was no possibility of him shooting people on the 101 lol…that’s just dumb
Unbelievable that they would waste all that manpower to close down the freeway! This was not even near the freeway, and even if the suspect had ran that way, they could have dealt with it without closing the road off in both directions. This affected hundreds, if not thousands of people. Waste of our tax dollars and a huge OVER reaction. Cops, just get in there, do your job and don’t overreact. It’s like they are so damned excited when something actually happens around here besides petty crime that they just can’t WAIT to make a big deal out of it and use their toys.
BIGUGLYSTICK – did you see the KEYT story on this? The apartments from which the shooter was shooting from where right next to the freeway and stray bullets could have easily reached either direction of traffic on the 101. Yeah, it was a HUGE inconvenience, but what would we all be saying if they left them open and someone was killed by a stray?
Capt. Cindy Ponce (CHP) said the freeway was closed because the gunman’s apt. was closest to, and facing, the freeway. If he had a long gun, he could shoot someone in their car on the 101 freeway. CHP was thinking ahead, and protecting everyone. Thank you, CHP.
*Pontes. She has been with the CHP for 18 years and has a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice and is commander of the CHP Santa Barbara area.
It is still early in terms of knowing all of the facts. But I was caught in the traffic jam and it was really scary. I was on the 24X bus heading from our Sierra Club board meeting downtown back to UCSB. The driver was in constant radio contact with the terminal and even he had little idea what was going on. It took an extra hour to get to UCSB and we were among the first vehicles diverted. Those behind us had much longer delays.
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I did not see police directing traffic at all, except to close the freeway. Each traffic signal was backing up traffic with no one in authority helping to keep things moving. Many thousands of freeway vehicles were being diverted onto a few local roads that just don’t have that much capacity. Only Cathedral Oaks was open to take all of that traffic.
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I have a math degree and I look at this in terms of expectation values of harm. In this case, about 10,000 hours were taken from peoples’ lives. I am not sure the expectation value of harm from a shooting on the freeway was that large.
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I will await further facts. But with what I know now, at the very least the police should have been doing more to direct traffic to offset the massive impact they had created.
Was it necessary to conduct a high risk operation at 12:45 in the afternoon next to a school in session? Law enforcement went loaded for bear so they knew this was very risky.
they most definitely did not.
Thank you SBRobert,
Well said.
We all have jobs to do.
L.E.O. jobs are sometimes dangerous, yet paralyzing an entire city is draconian, inefficient, and extremely dangerous for anyone else in the County who requires emergency services. The innocent should not pay the price of poor planning.
So, our Governor can’t support “Capital Punishment” is an excuse to gripe about him? He is morally right. In recent years, with DNA, many on death row have been found innocent and released. They should have been put to death? Recently 2 brothers in prison for 30 years, one on death row, were found innocent because of DNA results.
Hey folks, sorry about all the typos and errors in my earlier comment above this morning as I was in a rush to get out and didn’t proof read my statements. Obviously what I meant was that I DO NOT want politicians applying their moral compass to me or any other citizen and using that as an excuse to make the rules and laws up on their own. That is like trying to tell someone what religion they must follow because their current choice isn’t “morally correct” in their vision. And yes, FLIKA, I’m afraid that things will only get worse with someone like Newsom trying to tell us what’s right and wrong rather than govern based on the will of the people who elected him.
FLIKA, I do want our elected politicians telling us what is “morally right” because that is what they believe, mostly because they think that’s also being “politically correct”. And for Newsom to ignore the will of the voters is despicable. Your words remind of AOC’s comment that too many people get hung up governing with the facts rather than governing by being “morally correct.” Sure, let;s just ignore the facts rather than let them guide us logically. First off, your comment about innocent people being imprisoned is no longer relevant t as many have pointed out; with the current advanced state of DNA testing there is no chance that someone would be executed or serve long imprisonment who was actually innocent; what you mention happened a long ,long time ago before we had the scientific resources we have now. Why do you think people like Alvarez do what they do? Because they know the punishment is so lenient thanks to our broken down political and legal system. At least I can be grateful that Alvarez is now long gone thanks to his own actions; had he been captured alive, I’m sure he’s be out of jail in no time thanks to our soft laws and a Governor who is afraid to serve the majority will of the people.