Santa Barbara police officers were justified in fatally shooting a man who fired several rounds at officers who were serving “high risk” arrest and search warrants in May.
That was the conclusion announced Thursday by Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley.
The incident on May 7 resulted in the death of Francisco Anthony Alcaraz Jr., 32, at an apartment unit at Turnpike Road and Camino De Vida near Goleta.
The investigation into the officer-involved shooting was conducted by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department.
The District Attorney’s Office report said that “each of the officers acted reasonably in his use of deadly force, therefore the shooting of Francisco Anthony Alcaraz Jr. is a justifiable homicide.”
The Santa Barbara Police Department was investigating two recent gang-related shootings in the city.
The department is not disclosing any information about the shootings Alcaraz allegedly was involved in because the investigations are continuing, Anthony Wagner, a police spokesman, told Noozhawk on Thursday.
In connection with that investigation, detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Alcaraz on suspicion of attempted murder involving a gun, and a search warrant for an apartment unit near Goleta where he lived part-time with his wife and four children.
Shortly after noon on May 7, the SBPD Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team approached the apartment to serve the warrants.
Officers announced their presence and the warrants, and after receiving no response from Alcaraz, they breached the front door, the report said.
“When members of the SWAT team began knocking on Alcaraz’s door, announcing their presence, and demanding entry to serve the warrants, Alcaraz armed himself with a firearm,” the report said. “As the officers breached the apartment door, Alcaraz fired three to four rounds out the front door from an internal stairway, narrowly missing Officer (Bryce) Ford, who was at the front door.”
The District Attorney’s Office determined that “Officer (Justin) Cruz’s return fire toward the stairway inside the apartment was a reasonable use of deadly force to neutralize the deadly threat posed by Alcaraz to officers (Bryce) Ford, (Justin) Cruz and other members of the breaching team. Because of the speed with which the situation evolved, no other less-lethal force option was available or reasonable.”
As officers retreated to the back of the apartment unit to take cover behind the bearcat armored vehicle, “Alcaraz again fired multiple rounds at them,” according to the report.
“Given the nature of the crime for which Alcaraz was to be arrested, the layout of the apartment complex, and his repeated shooting at officers from multiple locations in his apartment, officers (Aaron) Denbrook, (Justin) Cruz, (Guillermo) Cipres, (Matthew) LaBarge and (Thomas) Van Eyck could reasonably believe that deadly force was necessary to respond to the threat of death or serious bodily injury Alcaraz posed to the officers and the public at large.”
The analysis also determined that when Alcaraz “fired multiple rounds at Santa Barbara officers through the front door of his apartment, his actions would create a fear of death or great bodily injury in the mind of a reasonable officer in Officer (Justin) Cruz’s position.”
According to the report, when Alcaraz fired out the back window of his apartment at the officers retreating to the bearcat vehicle, “his actions would create a fear of death or great bodily injury in the mind of a reasonable officer in the position of officers (Aaron) Denbrook, (Thomas) Van Eyck, (Justin) Cruz, (Guillermo) Cipres and (Matthew) LaBarge.”
An autopsy performed on May 9 by Dr. Manuel Montez, a forensic pathologist with the Sheriff’s Department, determined there were a total of four gunshot wounds to Alcaraz. Two were to his chest and two to his head.
The autopsy also revealed that the cause of death “was multiple gunshot wounds,” according to the District Attorney’s Office review. “None of the wounds had any indication of being shot from a close-range, therefore did not appear to be self-inflicted.”
The Sheriff-Coroner’s Bureau certified the manner of Alcaraz’s death as a homicide.
The 10-page report was based upon investigative and coroner’s reports, as well as video and audio recordings of the incident, and photographs and witness interviews conducted by the Sheriff’s Department.
— Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland can be reached at bholland@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.