Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced Thursday that the May 7 fatal officer-involved shooting was a justifiable homicide.
In May, the Santa Barbara Police Department was investigating two recent gang-related shootings within the city. Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for 32-year-old Francisco Anthony Alcaraz Jr. on a charge of attempted murder in connection with the investigation. Police also obtained a search warrant for an apartment in Goleta where Mr. Alcaraz lived part-time with his wife and children, according to the report.
Around noon on May 7, members of the Santa Barbara Police Department’s SWAT team arrived to serve the warrants. After receiving no response, officers breached the front door.
“Before the officers could enter the apartment, Alcaraz fired three to four rounds at the officers,” the report reads. “At least one round ripped through the pants of one of the officers. One officer returned fire before all the officers began to retreat around the side of the apartment to the back of the complex. Alcaraz fired again at multiple officers, this time from a second story bedroom window in the back of his unit.”
Multiple officers returned fire before the neighboring units were evacuated and a portion of Highway 101 was closed. Mr. Alcaraz was located on the second floor of his apartment with four gunshot wounds to his body. A handgun and extended magazine were located near him. Mr. Alcaraz was pronounced dead at the scene, the report reads.
In the report, Ms. Dudley 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.”
