Two men have been arrested in connection with a shooting last fall in the city’s Westside neighborhood that left a 16-year-old boy seriously injured, according to the Santa Barbara Police Department.
The attack occurred at about 8 p.m. on Sept. 22 on the 1200 block of San Andres Street, near Bohnett Park, Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale told Noozhawk.
The suspected shooter, Antonio S. Aguayo, 26, of Santa Barbara, was taken into custody Monday afternoon in Goleta by Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies, Ragsdale said.
They encountered Aguayo while responding to an unrelated battery call on the 400 block of Glen Annie Road, and discovered that he was the subject of a felony warrant, according to Ragsdale.
Aguayo was charged by the District Attorney’s Office with attempted murder, along with a gang enhancement, a firearm enhancement, and an enhancement for using a firearm causing great bodily injury, all felonies, Ragsdale said.
He was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Superior Court in Santa Barbara.
Aguayo’s alleged accomplice and get-away driver, Nicolas H. Fairbanks, 22, of Santa Barbara, was arrested last week on the 200 block of Anacapa Street in the city, Ragsdale said.
He also was charged with attempted murder, along with the same felony enhancements, and appeared in Superior Court last week for arraignment.
Both were being held Tuesday at Santa Barbara County Jail, with bail set at $1.1 million.
“It was reported the victim and another juvenile were walking on the sidewalk when a vehicle stopped, and the occupants contacted the two juveniles,” Ragsdale said at the time of the attack. “A verbal altercation occurred, and one of the vehicle’s occupants fired a small-caliber firearm, striking the victim in the abdomen.”
Detectives obtained arrest and search warrants for the pair, Ragsdale said, adding that a rifle seized during the investigation appears to be the one used in the shooting.
“Both Fairbanks and Aguayo are known members of a local criminal street gang,” Ragsdale added.
The juvenile victim, whose name has not been released due to his age, “was not affiliated with any gangs, and this shooting appears to be a random act of violence,” Ragsdale said.
— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
