SMPD discusses city wide emergency alert following armed standoff

SANTA MARIA, Calif. - People throughout Santa Maria got an emergency
alert during a late night armed standoff this weekend.

"I feel more at ease that we have those kind of alerts … if we were out … to
keep us safe … to keep us in place," said resident Christopher Garcia of Santa Maria.

"I’m glad because do you know what keeps us aware of what’s going on around
us," said resident Joe Navarro of Santa Maria.

Santa Maria police arrested a suspected shooter early Sunday morning after a seven hour standoff
in the area of Taft Street.

"… when they arrived they starting to approach the house … while doing so
the subject fired a round at one of our officers. Fortunately it missed the
officer and struck a vehicle," said lieutenant Terry Flaa of Santa Maria Police.

Officers say the man then started jumping fences going from yard to yard.

"It’s very dangerous … you know we often receive threats but to actually
carry a threat out with a firearm it’s extremely dangerous not only for us
but for The public as well," said Flaa.

So the department decided to issue an emergency alert for the community’s safety.

"You don’t want to be out there in the cross fire … or your kids you know …
but yeah I think that is good," said Navarro.

When you do receive an emergency alert on your phone, officers ask that
you do not call the 911 line or the non emergency line.

"That bogs down our phone system … makes it difficult for us to answer
actual emergency calls ... it uses up all our resources. So we ask that you monitor social media and
the alerts we send out with further instructions," said Flaa.

If you would like to register to receive an emergency alert go to the following link:

https://www.sbsheriff.org/home/emergency-notifications/