Santa Barbara News, Views, & Hyperlocal Information
Milpas Street is currently on lockdown after a woman purportedly took two kids hostage. The stand-off at 119 North Milpas has been ongoing since 3 p.m. and there is reportedly a strong, armed response taking place from the Santa Barbara Police Department.
Update: 7 p.m., the SWAT is moving out… no one was there after SWAT broke in.
Update: 11 p.m., police are searching for a woman with a gun who is on the loose.
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So much for your father’s Santa Barbara.
Bravo to Sharon Byrne for her intrepid photojournalism.
Where did they go?
SBPD is going to try to track them down out of concern for their welfare. I was on that block @ 3:00 PM when they were locking the street down – it was swift. Within minutes we were behind barricades, and no one was allowed in or out. The story (from a roommate) was that there was an altercation in the parking lot, with the daughter brandishing a gun at her parents. It was thought or given to police by her parents that she had locked herself in their apartment with her 2 kids. Police surrounded the building, locked down the street, and made contact with her by texting at one point. Food left on the stove burned, and we saw SWAT carry an extinguisher back behind the building. I was locked in the store across the street – a combo car stereo smoke shop, so I could see everything, but no one could move on the sidewalk during that time. SWAT took a fire truck ladder around back, and we heard a lot of sawing behind the building, and then the all-clear was given – no one in the apartment. It was an amazing and massive response, watching it unfold from across the street. The good news is the SBPD is really prepared for situations like this. It’s also good that the kids were unharmed, at least by this. Now we’ll have to see if they locate her, and the kids, and what happens next.
Well, that is the good news, the city police can and do respond. This sounds like an excellent training op. The bad news is the broad nature of the response, locking down the people across the street! and then finding nothing. Seems in hindsight to be more than a bit of overreaction.
The SBPD owes the public an explanation of this and the hours spent.
A woman with a gun and multiple kids eluded a swat team and the SBPD
The oddest thing to me in this whole story is that there exists a combo car stereo smoke shop and that neighborhood activist Sharon Byrne was apparently patronizing it.
She was probably there in her role as Milpas Community Association exec. director, perhaps soliciting the shop’s membership?
She didn’t leave while they had the building surrounded. She was gone before they arrived. Smoke coming out of the windows made everyone think someone was still in there.
Hey Smurf. I stopped at El Bajio actually, when I saw two police cars there. The owner is active in the MCA, and I worried he’d been robbed. No parking, so I parked at Blockbuster, ran back, and the police wouldn’t let me up the sidewalk. They were already locking down the block so I crossed the street and stood on the sidewalk. Then the PD ordered us inside and to close the doors in case of gunfire. It’s a place that installs stereos and sell marijuana paraphernalia. I’m not a fan. But they let me pull down their signs off the window so I could shoot photos while stuck in there a couple of hours.