sbsheriff
By the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Detectives are releasing the name of the Santa Maria Police Department (SMPD) Officer who was involved in the shootings that occurred at Melody Market on Saturday, March 25, 2023. The SMPD Officer is Antonio Peña, a 3-year veteran of their agency.
Sheriff’s detectives are also sharing surveillance videos from exterior cameras at Melody Market. The videos contain violence that may be disturbing to viewers. The videos shows the incident from two different angles and begins just before 8 p.m., when two vehicles, with four occupants in each vehicle, arrived separately at Melody Market. One of the occupants of the vehicles was 19-year-old Manuel Reyes Rios of Santa Maria. Moments later, Officer Peña arrived in his personal vehicle with his family. A fourth vehicle, with a woman and her two children also arrived at the market.
While Officer Peña and the woman were inside the store, the two groups from the other vehicles engaged in a physical altercation in the parking lot. Officer Peña had returned to his vehicle at the same time that Rios brandished a firearm and shot at the other group, striking one of them. Rios paused in his shooting, running past Officer Peña who had drawn his firearm and police badge.
Officer Peña verbally identified himself as an officer and ordered Rios to stop shooting and surrender. Rios did not comply with Officer Peña’s command, raising his firearm and shooting again at the other group and towards an occupied restaurant. This resulted in injury to one of the patrons from flying debris caused by Rios’ shooting. In that moment, Officer Peña fired at Rios until he dropped to the ground. Officer Peña called emergency services on his cell phone, ushered the uninvolved bystanders into the market and sheltered them inside until deputies arrived.
Rios was pronounced dead at the scene with a ghost gun in his possession. The remainder of the subjects who were involved in the altercation, including the person shot by Rios, fled the scene prior to deputies’ arrival. The video ends when Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies arrive on scene. This video is posted on the Sheriff’s Office YouTube channel.
This investigation remains ongoing. Detectives encourage anyone with additional information to contact the Criminal Investigations Division by calling (805)681-4150. If you prefer to remain anonymous, you can provide information by calling our tip line at (805)681-4171 or SBSheriff.org.
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Officer Pena is a HERO. He and his family should be given a R/T Holiday to Hawaii for having to deal with this IN FRONT of his family…
Thank you to the SMPD officer for your selfless actions that night.
BENICEE – I agree to a thanks for the officer’s “selfless actions.” The officer was obviously under stress for the actions that were occurring; and especially due to the fact his family was present at the scene. Great job.
I don’t understand the lack of comments relative to this incident. I’m also having a problem finding the SO video of the shooting. Does anyone else have this problem? I reviewed a KSBY video but IMO it doesn’t show much regarding the shooting but does show some people in a parking space in front of the store being struck by a car.
What comments are you looking for?
SO the guy in the red pulled the gun and crossed paths with the off duty cop? Did the guy in red get shot and not make it into the vehicle?