The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office has released more details regarding a stabbing suspect that was shot and killed by Deputies inside a Goleta grocery store on Monday, October 20, 2025.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office stated deputies responded to a report of an assault at the Magnolia Shopping Center in the 5100 block of Hollister Ave, the unincorporated area of Santa Barbara, commonly referred to as “Noleta.”
The call began at 2:39 pm at the Ralph’s grocery store inside the Magnolia Shopping Center as a report of a suspect actively assaulting a victim with a weapon.
The Sheriff’s Office states their update on the investigation found that prior to the deputies’ arrival, an adult male victim was stabbed twice and cut with a knife by an adult male suspect who fled into Ralph’s grocery store. Investigators also learned that the altercation was related to the suspect abusing the victim’s dog.
Deputies contacted the adult male suspect inside the store and attempted to apprehend him; however, there was an altercation, and the suspect was shot. The sequence of events that transpired after the deputies’ arrival and up to the officer involved shooting are part of the ongoing investigation, the Sheriff’s Office states.
The suspect was pronounced deceased at the scene. Their identity has yet to be released, pending next of kin notification.
The stabbing victim was treated at an area hospital and has since been released. The victim’s dog and the Deputies were not injured.
Two deputies have been placed on paid administrative leave, in accordance with Sheriff’s Office policy.
“The California Department of Justice assisted the Sheriff’s Forensics team with processing the crime scene but is not conducting the overall officer involved shooting pursuant to AB1506, as the criteria for this to occur was not present in this case. This incident remains under active investigation,” the Sheriff’s Office states.
California Highway Patrol assisted the Sheriff’s Office in their response. CHP stated an evacuation of the shopping center took place as a command post was set up to block entrance into the center.
The Magnolia Shopping Center was closed for up to an hour. California Highway Patrol announced it was reopened to the public as of 3:30 p.m. Monday.
Additional details will be updated to this story when available.
[Ed Note: This article was updated on October 22, 2025 with new information provided by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.]
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Pretty sketchy report. Was the victim assaulting or threatening the deputies with gross bodily harm? What was the victim’s “weapon”? Sounds to me like another example of shoot first policing. Where were the tasers? Where were the non-lethal rounds? Where’s the facts? Perhaps we need a new sheriff….
It was a knife and he “lunged at them” … his death indicates poor training, at least.
https://www.facebook.com/JohnPalminteriNews/posts/pfbid035XKPE4cyYeSFYNjP4nsbJ3fAqQJigNUW9GLz1inJLmh56tYhTCxXvDjAQHHSXuyCl
Hoping no one was killed unnecessarily. The comments online are predictably racist and political despite no facts being shared with the public.
Mark McIntyre is something else. He sounds eerily familiar to some here…..
You lost me after your first sentence. Not really sure what the need was for the next two.
M2457 – the guy is trolling Edhat on Facebook and all other local news sites with racist and hateful comments. Just curious if he’s here as well.
Sorry, but I don’t just lay down and roll over when I see people spewing vileness and hate all over our local sites.
sacjon – So you came to this article to post something about a guy that you’ve seen post/troll at times, but not on this post, and brought it up before he could… This is an article about someone attacking a person and then getting killed, but yet you felt it was the perfect time to bring that up. Rather random and almost like you are now trolling him, lol.
Are you the arbiter of free speech today?
He’s the arbiter of free speech EVERYDAY!
00Ps – tell us, in detail and with specifics, how your “free speech” is ever inhibited here.
You being consistently dominated and shut down due to your weak intellect and cult mindset has nothing to do with “Free Speech”, as usual, MAGA people don’t actually understand what “Free Speech” is.
Oops doesn’t understand technology well enough to understand who I was replying to. Do you still have Windows 3.11 and Netscape Navigator? An AOL floppy perhaps?
GeneralTree – Lol!
Who said I didn’t? Why are you making such a deal out of this?
That coulda been super traumatic for people working and shopping there. Check with your friends
I couldn’t even imagine! People went shopping and end up witnessing the violent death of another person. I don’t think the store will be opening anytime soon. Must take a lot of work to clean a grocery store after a shooting death.
Oh gee, BASIC, you’re so brave and cool! Yeah, totally no biggie, right? Just a man’s blood splattered all over the store in front of the shoppers. Stay calm everyone! This is normal and no one should be concerned, alarmed, worried or upset!
according to history and some witnesses, the man didn’t need to die. once again SB sheriff deputies trigger happy. this just wrecked many lives and took one as well. no need. yes he assaulted someone. was mentally ill. not an excuse. just some minor facts. horrible for all involved.
KNEIN – yeah, I read somewhere that it was a couple of homeless people fighting over a backpack and they took the fight inside Ralphs. Sounds again like a mental illness situation, which is why we really need to be funding more specialists for these types of scenarios. Easy to say I guess without knowing all the facts, but shooting a person with clear mental issues should be the last resort, if at all. Would a taser or some other non-lethal force have worked? Maybe? We’ll have to see though.
Sad all around.
hey bud, yeah i agree with you. also to note, they did not deploy any non lethal rounds….seems standard practice for Brown’s gunslingers. Remember this Sheriff department has a history of shooting people to death when other methods could have been used and were not. they have been sued and lost countless times and still employ deputies with a dangerous and wreckless track record on excessive force. 3-4 shots were fired. all hit the subject. SB SD has a history of gunning down people with knives.
all in all, this is horrible. i have a friend that works there. I got a lot of details that i doubt will ever come out in the media. let’s say the sheriff department may get sued for this one too, and it comes out of our pockets. with all of the advanced training, gear, weapons, dogs, etc, there are countless avenues they could have taken to apprehend this man without murdering him.
KNEIN – I hope those facts do come to light! Firing a gun at someone without a gun in a grocery store seems like it should have been the very last option only to be used AFTER non-lethals have been attempted. Did this guy jump out from behind the produce stand or something? How can you gun down a man in a grocery store lawfully unless he’s right on top of you?
Ol’ Bootlicking Billy Brown just refused to obey the new rules set by the Board of Supervisors on dealing with ICE so his time has definitely come. We are a liberal county and should have a Sheriff that values life and freedom over party.
Yes. Mental health intervention has been absent for decades. In particularly in SB where the Health Dept/Wellness people continue to refuse to encounter this problem. They have refused to expanded locked care facilities, relying instead on out of county placements and the county jail to hold this population. Despite the voters approval of billions of dollars for mental health care intervention almost nothing has been done. This is years after passage of these laws. County health care continues to say they are studying the problem. They simply do not want to do the difficult work.
And a big thanks to Ronald Reagan.
It wasn’t just Reagan. The Dems agreed to the LPS reforms with the naive belief that funding saved from the old mental lockups would be used to provide safe housing, care and identification. They never funded those programs. The huge gap that resulted was the fault of both sides. We have been living with that for decades now.
Referring to these officers were trigger happy is the furthest thing from the truth. For sure, this person certainly did not need to die and his death was definitely avoidable. Simply following LE commands would have prevented this tragedy. Not following LE commands and charging at them with a deadly weapon is not going to end well. At the end of the day, whatever was inside the backpack was not worth losing one’s life over.
Bees, sound like you know the story.
What was the weapon the deceased was charging with?
Bees, where is this mental diarrhea coming from? Have you seen the body cam footage already?
BEES – you say “trigger happy is the furthest thing from the truth” and then the very next sentence say “this person certainly did not need to die and his death was definitely avoidable.”
Uh…..so which is it? Do you know what words mean?
What is “the truth” here? You clearly admit you don’t have any idea.
To me this is really sad, as it appears that a person was murdered…
“A California Department of Justice vehicle arrived to take on the investigation.”
…not saying where I copied that quote from, easy enough to find.
Bends knees to violent inept LE.
Bees, please do some research on SB County Sheriff departments excessive force court cases. Just like you, i’ve been here a very long time and i pay attention…just like you do, right?
There have been countless cases within SB where they have gunned down people in quick time, killing them when they did not have a firearm. A knife, a rock, nothing, they will shoot first. Their training is poor. The county has had to cover tens of millions in payouts. I’m not exaggerating. I fully support law enforcement and have several close friends working in several departments including the SB Sheriff department.
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So you want us to believe that Reagan tore down the entire mental health system in California ( killing so many jobs at surrounding businesses) but it is the Democrats fault? That’s pretty typical, a Republican breaks or cancels it and then blames it on the democrats that it is broken. How did that whole repeal and REPLACE Obamacare initiative go? Right now Tepublicans ate practicing Eugenics 101 and killing all of the programs that support the old, the sick, the poor, the disabled and the disadvantaged.
I was at this store about 8 years ago and a man came in screaming that someone was hurt in the parking lot and needed help. I observed the staff ignoring him. When I got to the cashier I asked why no one was helping and I was told he does that multiple times per day and nothing was happening outside.
where were the tasers? rubber bullets?