The three people killed in an Orcutt residence Friday night had been “brutally stabbed and beaten to death” by the suspect, and all four people lived at the Oakhill Country Estates home where they were found, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
“The Sheriff’s Office continues to investigate the motive and circumstances leading up to this horrific act of violence and we send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the victims who were so senselessly killed,” spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said Saturday, as the department revealed preliminary details about the attack on the victims.
On Saturday evening, authorities identified the homicide suspect as David Gerald McNabb, 43, and the victims as his mother, Melanie McNabb, 64, his sister, Nicole McNabb, 34, and 63-year-old Carlos Echavarria.
McNabb worked at the Sheriff’s Department as a custody deputy from July 2001 to March 2012, when he voluntarily resigned, Hoover said in a statement Saturday.
She added that he was arrested in Ventura County in September 2012, convicted of felony domestic violence in 2014, and sentenced to jail time.
Shortly after 8 p.m. Friday, dispatchers received a call from someone who entered her home on Oakhill Drive and found a “bloody scene inside,” including a bloodied victim in a bathtub, Hoover said.
The person who called 9-1-1 left the house without being injured and alerted authorities, and deputies responded to the home on the 5900 block of Oakhill Drive, off Graciosa Road.
When law enforcement deputies responded to the scene, they encountered a man armed with a rifle, who was the suspect in the killings, Hoover said.
Members of the sheriff’s Special Enforcement Team used less-lethal munitions — 40mm impact weapon and shotgun beanbag rounds — to try and subdue the man, who was later identified as McNabb.
“However, the suspect continued to pose an immediate threat, at which point the deputies shot him,” Hoover said.
McNabb was pronounced dead of his injuries at a local hospital, she said.
Deputies found the bodies of three homicide victims at the property.
On Friday night, Hoover said the triple-homicide appeared to be an isolated incident, and there did not appear to be a public safety threat.
Detectives were investigating the homicides and the officer-involved shooting of the suspect, and many personnel were on the scene overnight to process the crime scene, Hoover said.
Oakhill Country Estates is one of two gated communities of expensive homes on large lots south of Rice Ranch Road at the southern edge of Orcutt.
On Saturday, security guards were positioned at the entrances to the neighborhood restricting access to residents.
Near a sign at one entrance off Graciosa Road on Saturday afternoon, balloons and flower bouquets had been placed in front of the Oakhill Country Estates sign as a memorial to the victims.
As law enforcement officers responded to the scene Friday night, the Santa Barbara County Office of Emergency Management issued a “shelter in place” alert to Oakhill Estates residents.
Law enforcement officers also established road blocks to keep people from access the neighborhood until the Sheriff’s Department confirmed the scene had been secured.
— Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.