Police Chase Through Downtown Santa Barbara Leads to Major Injury

Update by the Santa Barbara Police Department
4:30 p.m., June 6, 2023

On June 6, 2023, at 12:25 pm, Santa Barbara Police responded to a disturbance in the 1900 block of De La Vina Street. The reporting party called police dispatch to report a subject was pounding on the windows and attempting to enter a locked door of a local business.

Officers arrived and contacted the subject without incident. The subject was asked to leave the property and they complied. As the subject was leaving in their vehicle, they struck a retaining wall.

In the 2000 block of Bath Street the officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, and a good Samaritan attempted to prevent the vehicle from leaving the traffic stop by standing in front of it. The driver struck the good Samaritan, fled the scene, and a pursuit was initiated. Officers rendered life-saving measures and medical aid to the good Samaritan until Fire Department Personnel and AMR Paramedics arrived. The good Samaritan was transported to Cottage Hospital with serious injuries. 

Officers were able to arrest the suspect in the 2300 block of Carlton Way at 1:36 pm. There are multiple components to this incident, and the investigation is active and ongoing at this time. More information will be provided as soon as it is available. 


By Geo Duarte, Scanner Reporter
2:45 p.m., June 6, 2023

According to the emergency traffic scanner, Santa Barbara Police led a chase through downtown Santa Barbara on Tuesday.

It’s unknown what the initial call was but a pedestrian was struck near Bath and Mission Streets and sustained life threating injuries.

The pursuit proceeded to Las Positas then onto Cliff Drive. The Toyota Tacoma then turned right on Mesa Lane. At the end of Mesa Lane the subject kept going around the block at 5 miles per hour for almost 20 minutes.

Highway Patrol was called in and joined the chase as they planned to use a spike strip. The top of Cooper and Mesa Lane were blocked off from incoming traffic.

Someone put a shopping cart on the westbound side of Mesa Lane, the suspect struck it and kept slowly circling. One officer mentioned this is a suspected DUI.


Police surround suspect vehicle in Santa Barbara’s Mesa neighborhood (Photo: Geo Duarte)

UPDATE by Geo:

About 2:30 PM. The first scanner report of this incident was a” single vehicle accident into a wall.” The man was told to leave a business on the 2000 block of De La Vina because he was banging on the windows of the establishment. This is how it began and escalated immediately as the man was leaving he backed up into a retaining wall. And, left the scene, a pursuit ensued.

It sounds like the man that was run over on or near Mission St. was attempting to prevent the truck from continuing; he was then run over. I believe this is attempted murder at this point. Some of his family members may have been present, no other details at this point. Some bystanders were wondering if this was Grand Theft Auto? This is not believed to be the case.

Apparently a resident working on his lawn approached the truck and jumped on the vehicles side-step attempting to negotiate with the driver. The driver then grabbed the man by the collar. This distraction caused the driver to stop and with weapons drawn SBPD approached the truck and pulled the assailant out of the truck. This Felony Stop turned into a bit of a wrestling match with police. The suspect was overpowered by several officers and handcuffed. The man then casually went back to mowing his lawn. Officers were not pleased with this stunt and requested to see the resident’s ID due to his unwelcome participation. Dangerous move!


Photos by Geo Duarte

Geo Duarte

Written by Geo Duarte

Geo Duarte is a volunteer scanner reporter for edhat.com. More reports can be viewed on Geo's Instagram page @Xtek_Overload

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  1. PD press release:
    Vehicle Pursuit Ends with Arrest
    SANTA BARBARA, CA – June 6, 2023
    On June 6, 2023, at 12:25 pm, Santa Barbara Police responded to a disturbance in the 1900 block of De La Vina Street. The reporting party called police dispatch to report a subject was pounding on the windows and attempting to enter a locked door of a local business.
    Officers arrived and contacted the subject without incident. The subject was asked to leave the property and they complied. As the subject was leaving in their vehicle, they struck a retaining wall.
    In the 2000 block of Bath Street the officers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle, and a good Samaritan attempted to prevent the vehicle from leaving the traffic stop by standing in front of it. The driver struck the good Samaritan, fled the scene, and a pursuit was initiated. Officers rendered life-saving measures and medical aid to the good Samaritan until Fire Department Personnel and AMR Paramedics arrived. The good Samaritan was transported to Cottage Hospital with serious injuries.
    Officers were able to arrest the suspect in the 2300 block of Carlton Way at 1:36 pm. There are multiple components to this incident, and the investigation is active and ongoing at this time. More information will be provided as soon as it is available.

  2. Citizen #1 stands in front of the suspect vehicle on Bath Street and is run over. Somehow, Citizen #2 talks to the suspect when the car is stopped? The suspects car is placed in park and the officers are then able to remove him from the car? In addition, someone reportedly put a shopping cart in the road that was hit by the suspect vehicle. If this is accurate, was the cart placed by Citizen #2 or is there a 3d citizen involved? IMO we have absolutely no business getting involved in a police incident of this type. It will be interesting to read the final police report, especially as it relates to citizen involvement.

    • I was there and can only assume #3 was a kiddo, testing the paramiters of his multi-perceptional and experimental authoritarian measures, versus the authoritative realities of Common Sense, Natural Law, and Common Law, then; therefore eventuality in effect… Experience, and Proedural and Legal Guidelines, moreover, Advanced Agency by PD, thank God, Supervisational measures and Rules, and real-time-revisioning, Plus, Tried and True, Laws and professional tactics, which try to preven and trump wild civilian intrusions and unsafereactivness.
      Great Job SB team. You can only be so procative within the construct of the paramiters of measured enforcement. I am no expert, yet, this active performance was executed so very well by enforcement. Reactiveness was completely avoided, and 1 out of 2 civilians reactive incidents, resulted in serious chaotic mayhem, and physical harm to one “Good Samaritan”. Godspeed, and. Wow! Sheesh, and Oofff! Great Job SBPD! T.Y.

    • Well, I downvoted you because I think that calling vigilante civilians intervening in what was a relatively violent crime in progress “brave”, to be stupid. It’s not cool, it’s not brave, it’s not heroic, it’s just plain stupid behavior. Stop the heroification of reckless behavior.

  3. I wonder why they did not just block him in? Considering his low speed and predictable driving pattern, It could have been anticipated that he would continue going around the block until some external influence would change or prevent this loopy behavior. The prevention of a collision possibly? He did allegedly ram and rollover a human being. IDK, enough!

  4. The question for all of us watching this unfold on Mesa Lane was, why isn’t SBPD making any attempt to block the suspect’s car? They had the split stretch along Mesa Lane to easily maneuver one of their patrol cars down that lane and block the suspect on any of the ten slow laps he made around that block. Turns out SBPD cannot exercise this or the PIT maneuver. CHP had to respond with a spike strip. That really limited SBPD’s options and was painful to watch.

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