3 arrested, 1 still on the run after high-speed chase through Santa Ynez Valley
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Three people were arrested and a fourth person was on the run after a high-speed chase through the Santa Ynez Valley Wednesday.
The first reports started coming in around 11:30 a.m.
The chase reached speeds of up to 100 miles per hour and spanned from the Lompoc area to Solvang, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office.
“The vehicle failed to yield and hit speeds of about 100 miles an hour. The deputy initiated a pursuit that took them to Buellton,” said Raquel Zick, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer.
The Sheriff's Office says the chase started at the Highway 246/Purisima roundabout near Lompoc when a deputy tried to make a traffic stop.
The driver of a tan Toyota Camry led the deputy on a high-speed chase to Avenue Of The Flags in Buellton, where the driver crashed into several cars. The sheriff's office says at that point, deputies called off the chase because it was too dangerous.
"They discontinued the pursuit when it became too dangerous because of the two traffic collisions, although they were minor, it was more of a public risk than the deputies were willing to continue with, so they did discontinue it at that time and then we found them at the location where they abandoned the vehicle,” said Zick.
Less than 30 minutes later, a CHP officer flagged down a sheriff's unit and told them they had received calls about people who had run from a vehicle in the Skytt Mesa neighborhood in Solvang.
Deputies say the four people inside the Camry had scattered. Investigators on the ground and in a helicopter responded to the area near Hans Christian Andersen Park.
Helicopters hovered above as a chaotic scene unfolded throughout the afternoon.
“There was a guy speaking on the radio loudspeaker, saying like you need to get on the ground. Stop this is the authorities. It was kind of intimidating for a second,” said Chandler Nash from Solvang.
A shelter-in-place warning was issued around 12 p.m. for the neighborhood. That warning was lifted by 1 p.m.
Deputies eventually arrested Maya Winters, 20, of Santa Maria and Jasen Robles, 24, of Santa Maria. A 17-year-old boy was also arrested, but his name was not released because he is a minor.
In the wrong place at the wrong time, Chandler Nash came to the park to skateboard, when he came face to face with authorities on the lookout.
“He pulled up super close to me, he thought I was the guy. He told me to sit on the curb and had his hand on his gun so I was like I’m just here trying to skate,” said Nash.
The fourth suspect was still on the run as of Wednesday evening, and investigators did not have a detailed description of him. Witnesses described him as a Hispanic man in a dark hoodie with some sort of facial hair.
"As he was speeding away I looked behind me and there was an individual dressed in black and he walked into the bathroom," said Nash.
There were initial reports the chase may have started on Highway 101, but sheriff's deputies later said it started on Highway 246.
Our newsroom called Solvang School, which is located near the park, to find out if the campus took any additional security precautions during the response, but those calls have not been returned.
