A man who allegedly had been driving recklessly and was involved in multiple collisions was shot Wednesday afternoon in an encounter with sheriff’s deputies at Providence Landing Park in Vandenberg Village near Lompoc.
Numerous Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies and other emergency personnel converged on the scene of a “major incident” on Mercury Avenue shortly before 2 p.m., according to sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick.
Emergency radio traffic indicated the suspect was down on the ground, but was not being totally compliant with orders from deputies.
He was reported to be lying face-up, and indicated his back was injured, while deputies observed blood, according to emergency radio traffic.
The man was reported to be in custody at 2:25 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the shoulder, and was given medical aid.
A Calstar medical helicopter landed at the park to airlift the suspect to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, but the decision was made to instead transport him by ground ambulance to Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria.
The suspect was in stable condition, Zick said, and was expected to recover from his wounds.
The incident began at about 1:30 p.m. after a hit-and-run crash on the 4000 block of Stardust Road and multiple calls about a reckless driver in the Vandenberg Village area, Cmdr. Erik Raney told Noozhawk.
Deputies located the suspect on the 600 block of Mercury Avenue shortly before 2 p.m., near a recreation building, Zick said.
“They then located a subject they believed to be involved with that vehicle on foot in the park area of Providence Landing,” Raney said. “They attempted to make contact with him. He was uncooperatives. At some point during that contact, there was an officer-involved shooting.”
The sequence of events remained under investigation, but it’s known that two deputies shot at the suspect, Zick said.
Authorities did not say whether the man had a weapon.
The names of the suspect and the two deputies were not released Wednesday night.
The two deputies involved were not injured in the incident, Raney said.
He added that investigators were still sorting out if the vehicle belonged to the driver or had been stolen. A vehicle possibly related to the incident was located on Celestial Way.
Shortly after arriving at the scene, deputies requested armor and at least one armored Bearcat vehicle assisted on the incident.
Firefighters and medics were staged nearby, and a shelter-in-place order was issued for the surrounding neighborhood, asking people to stay away from the incident.
Nearby Maple High School was briefly placed on lockdown.
California Highway Patrol officers were investigating the circumstances around the vehicle accident, Raney said.
The Sheriff’s Office detectives were investigating the aspects that led to the deputies firing their weapons, Zick added.
Check back with Noozhawk for updates to this story.
Noozhawk North County Editor Janene Scully reported from the scene.
— 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.
