Vandenberg Village homewoner questions use of force in search for convicted felon
The upstairs of Garry Sanchez’s home looks like a war zone. He says this is how it looks after officers and deputies searched for his tenant, convicted felon Carlos Davis. However, Davis is not the same person Sanchez thought he was renting to.
“He seemed clean based off the web searches my daughter and I did and he was quiet and that’s something I cared about – someone’s who’s quiet, neat, cleans up after themselves,” Sanchez says.
For the last four months, Sanchez says Davis always paid his rent on time, never giving any signs he was a convicted felon. It wasn’t until police charged through Sanchez’s front door did he know something was wrong.
“Before I even reached the front door, the front door comes blasting open and in comes this group of people spreading through the house. I get escorted out, I’m just barefoot with a robe on and I’m like “what in the world is going on?” So one guy’s yelling at me: “Where is Carlos Davis? Where is Carlos Davis?” and I said I don’t know where Carlos Davis is.. I’m not his mother, I don’t watch him,” Sanchez explains.
Sanchez says an officer told him they had been surveying Davis at the home for weeks and were trying to arrest him for a probation violation. Police believed Davis was inside the house, armed and dangerous. After repeated attempts to get Davis to answer, police detonated a number of explosives before breaking down the upstairs door causing damage to everything around it.
“The detonation blew a Howard Mueller clock off the wall and it smashed it. I know exactly what time they detonated the explosive up there because that’s when it stopped the clock,” Sanchez tells us.
Now he wants answers, wondering why so much force was used and who’s going to pay for all of the damages in his home.The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office says everything their deputies did was necessary and Sanchez will have to file a claim with the county’s risk management office to see if anything can be reimbursed.
“It’s unfortunate that the homeowner is unhappy but we absolutely do not believe there was an excessive use of force in this situation. This was a suspect who was known to law enforcement repeated weapons violations and he was believed to be in possession of weapons [making him] armed and dangerous,” explains Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer, Kelly Hoover.
Lompoc police arrested Carlos Davis the following day at another home in Lompoc. Sanchez tells us he never plans on renting a room again but for those who are still looking for tenants, the Sheriff’s Department recommends before renting out your home to people online to do thorough background searches and even get the person fingerprinted if you want to know more.
