Anonymous
Photos: John Palminteri
Update by Office of the District Attorney
June 7, 12:29 pm
People v. Igor Rai Ortiz, et al
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce E. Dudley announced today that four adults and one juvenile have been charged with various felonies related to the June 1, 2019 homicide of twenty-nine year old Alberto Torres. The homicide occurred on Cacique Street, located on the Eastside of Santa Barbara. Angel Barajas (age 31), Igor Ortiz (age 20), and Adelain Ibarra (age 20), have been charged with murder, a gang special circumstance and a gang enhancement. It is further alleged that Barajas and Ortiz personally used a deadly weapon during the commission of the offense and that Ortiz was out on bail related to two pending felony cases when the homicide was committed. Alondra Ochoa (age 18) has been charged with accessory to murder and a gang enhancement. All defendants have been charged with conspiracy to commit street terrorism. The juvenile will remain within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court for the time being. This investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be filed in the coming weeks. No further comment will be made at this time. Arraignment on the charges has been set for June 7, 2019 in Department 8 of the Santa Barbara Superior Court. The case will be prosecuted by Senior Deputy District Attorney Kimberly Siegel in the District Attorney’s gang prosecutions unit.
Update by Santa Barbara Police Department
June 6, 5:09 pm
The following adults have been arrested on felony charges related to the June 1st homicide of Alberto Torres:
Angel Barajas, age 31
Igor Ortiz, age 20
Adelain Ibarra (female), age 20
Alondra Ochoa (female), age 18
Additionally, one female juvenile was also taken into custody.
Because of the ongoing investigation, the Police Department is refraining from providing additional information at this time.
Update by Santa Barbara Police Department
The Santa Barbara Police Department is able to provide a limited update to this morning’s homicide:
The victim was a Hispanic male adult, age 29.
He suffered from multiple stab wounds from a sharp object.
The crime took place in the 1300 block of Cacique Street in the City.
Detectives urge anyone with additional information to call 805-882-8900, you may choose to remain anonymous.
Update by John Palminteri of KEYT
FATALITY – witnesses say this was a STABBING – Santa Barbara Police with a multi-hour investigation / street closure underway after major incident on Eastside. Cacique St.
Deceased is a male. Died at the hospital. This happened about 130 am. More details coming out later today
Source: Santa Barbara Police Department
On June 1, 2019 at approximately 1:15 A.M., Santa Barbara Police Dispatch received a 911 call reporting that a man had just been assaulted. Multiple Patrol Officers responded to the scene with lights and siren.
Officers located an unconscious, male adult. Officers began emergency aid prior to the Santa Barbara Fire Department and AMR arriving on the scene.
The male was transported to Cottage Hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.
Santa Barbara Patrol Officers secured the scene to preserve evidence to be processed by crime scene investigators and detectives.
The investigation remains ongoing. The Santa Barbara Police Department will release additional information as leads develop.
Heard on the “street” he was shot and then stabbed. Not sure that’s correct though.
Uh-oh. The gun owners defenders club on Edhat won’t be too happen when they hear it wasn’t only a knife used.
Violence was used.
Several years ago, another man was killed in this area while walking home from his job at a store on Milpas St. This is awful. I’m sorry for the victim, his family, and everyone who lives nearby and has to be afraid to take a walk at night. What’s happening to our town ?
I guess telling where this occurred would be too much?
Salinas and Cacique Streets. Gang related shooting and stabbing.
Diversity is our strength.
LUVADUCK. There were probably gangs in Ancient Rome. There was certainly graffiti back then. Ever hear of the 2002 movie directed by Scorsese titled “Gangs of New York?” An epic period piece set in 1863.
Research “Gangs of New York”. Mostly exaggerated and fictional. A few bar fights but nothing like the movie portrayed. Take a look at the Zoot Suit wars in LA in the 1930’s for more local information. Our gangs are MS13 and narco turf wars and have zero socially redeeming values. They need to be driven out of Santa Barbara. Stat. They are the worst possible option in our town.
He was probably just out walking the dog or going for a stroll…you know, like most normal people do at 1:15am
People that work the night shift do that stuff on their nights off just like normal people do…
Gangs. Always a problem. Never anything good out of them.
I’m fairly ignorant of gang membership. It wasn’t around where I grew up. Somebody who knows: Is it primarily teens-20s and maybe early 30s? Do members stop being active when they get a job/wife/kids? To what extent is it a drug-related activity? When did it start being so ubiquitos? After the Vietnam?
Gang is just another word for tribe, and most of us are tribal in some way. Just look at our nonsensical affinities for our local sports teams or neighborhoods or cities relative to other teams/neighborhoods/cities. Gangs flourish in poor communities where the people struggle to survive and upward mobility is a joke. Saying that we can get rid of gangsters without addressing the the root causes in their communities is naive. You can lock them all up, if you can afford it and don’t mind the heavy taxes, but you will still have drugs, broken families, bad schools, and poor living conditions. So will still have gangs.
Totally agree not solving the problem insures that prisons will always be in business, cops will never get laid off and the business of justice will continue to grow.
Factotum, history is not your strength. The Zoot Suit riots were in 1943 and were mostly attacks by soldiers, marines, sailors and police on young Chicanos and other minorities. Here is an eye witness account:
“Marching through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, a mob of several thousand soldiers, sailors, and civilians, proceeded to beat up every zoot suiter they could find. Pushing its way into the important motion picture theaters, the mob ordered the management to turn on the house lights and then ran up and down the aisles dragging Mexicans out of their seats. Streetcars were halted while Mexicans, and some Filipinos and Negroes, were jerked from their seats, pushed into the streets and beaten with a sadistic frenzy”
Keep reading and back up a few years. The Zoot Suit riot was a flashpoint, but the Gangs of LA had an earlier history – 38th Street Gang: 38th Street gang. FoundedUnknown exact date, most accepted early 1920s.
Years activeEarly 1920s – present
TerritoryPrimarily in Magna, Utah and Los Angeles [1]
EthnicityMexican Americans.
Criminal activitiesDrug trafficking,[2] assault, robbery, extortion,[2] arms trafficking, theft, murder,[2] racketeering,[2] illegal immigration, illegal gambling, kidnapping,[2] witness intimidation[2] and fraud.
AlliesMexican Mafia,[2] Sureños.
Rivals[3] Bloods[4] Mara Salvatrucha, Varrio Nuevo Estrada, White Fence, Florencia 13, The Avenues, Westside Verdugo, SXL 13.
The 38th Street gang is an American criminal street gang in Los Angeles, California, composed mainly of Hispanic-Americans. “The 38th Street gang is one of the oldest street gangs in Los Angeles and has been occupying its territory since the 1920s. They engage in many criminal activities. The Mexican Mafia controls and routinely uses 38th Street gang members to carry out their orders.”
Stabbed, not shot you hippie.
To be “jumped” into a gang requires increasing acts of violence to prove your worth to the gang leaders – graffiti, vandalism, shop-lifting, car-break-ins, thefts, robbery, fights, knifings and worse. There is no socially redeeming value for any aspect of gang membership. They do not belong in this town. Sit in on a court trial when gang-banger are finally caught for capital offenses. That is when you can hear court testimony about “gang life” in this town, while the defendents sit with their court appointed lawyers, their court appointed translators, and the courtroom bristles with additional security protection and the public gallery is filled with gang wannabee runners who immediately report to the front lines who snitched and who kept the code of silence.
Prior to last week , 515 days, with an average of about 1.2 a year.
I know it sounds callous but it is hard to feel any sympathy for any of those involved. They are pieces of disgusting filth that unnecessarily impact our peaceful way of living. No wonder SB has business issues.