The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office responded to an attack with a deadly weapon inside the Ralph’s grocery store at the Magnolia Shopping Center near Goleta Monday afternoon, and law enforcement officers fatally shot the suspect, spokeswoman Raquel Zick said.  

Deputies responded to a report of a man “actively assaulting a victim with a weapon” inside the store at 5170 Hollister Ave. at 2:39 p.m., Zick said.

“The sequence of events that transpired after the deputies’ arrival and the officer-involved shooting is part of the investigation,” Zick said.

“But what is immediately clear is that 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 suspect was pronounced dead at the scene, she said, adding that deputies were not injured in the incident.

No additional information was available about the weapon or the identity of the man shot.

The assault and the shooting both occurred inside the grocery store, she confirmed.

Ralph’s sent employees home for the day, and the Sheriff’s Office said staff could not return until Tuesday morning.

The entire Magnolia Shopping Center in the Eastern Goleta Valley was briefly closed to the public after the incident. The California Highway Patrol reported that the shopping center reopened as of 3:30 p.m. 

Employees of the Ralph’s told Noozhawk that they had heard several shots during the incident.

They also said they heard it was a stabbing that prompted the initial law enforcement response, but that could not be confirmed.

The Sheriff’s-Coroner’s Bureau arrived at the scene at about 4:10 p.m.

Check back with Noozhawk for updates to this story.