SBPDPIO
Update by the Santa Barbara Police Department
April 21, 2022
On April 21, 2022, around 9:20 am, the Santa Barbara Police Department followed up on several leads provided by community members regarding a taser assault and elder abuse incident that occurred in the 2900 block of State Street this Monday (April 18, 2022).
Information was provided to Officers as to the identity and location of the suspect. Officers were able to make contact with the suspect in the 100 West block of Calle Crespis.
During this portion of the investigation, probable cause was established to arrest 41-year-old Santa Barbara resident, Violetta Hatipoglu.
The investigation revealed a verbal argument ensued between the victim and Hatipoglu. This led to Hatipoglu using a flashlight-taser on the victim several times.
Hatipoglu was transported and booked in the Santa Barbara County Jail for Felony Elder Abuse and Felony Assault with a Taser. Bail was set at $20,000.
Santa Barbara Police would like to thank the community and media outlets that assisted with the investigation.
Police Search for Suspect Who Allegedly Tasered Elderly Woman
Source: Santa Barbara Police Department
April 20, 2022
On April 18, 2022, around 7:30 pm, the Santa Barbara Police Combined Communication Center received a report from a 72-year-old female victim stating she had just been attacked and tasered by an unknown female suspect in the 2900 block of State Street.
The victim reported, while on her cell phone talking to a family member, the female suspect approached her and brandished a taser. According to the initial investigation, this incident was unprovoked by the victim. The suspect then began to “taser” the victim several times before fleeing the area on foot.
The suspect is currently outstanding, and the Santa Barbara Police Department is requesting the assistance of the community in identifying her. The suspect needs to be questioned regarding this case for felony elder abuse and felony assault with a taser.
The suspect appears to be a Hispanic female approximately 5’ 4”, weighing around 160 lbs., and in their mid-30s. At the time of the attack the suspect was wearing a grey beanie type hat, brown jacket, and grey athletic pants. The suspect also had a German Shepard dog with her.
If you know this suspect, or observed someone matching the description in the photos, please contact the Santa Barbara Police Department 805-882-8900 or call 9-1-1.
The release of these photographs has been approved by the Chief of Police for distribution to media outlets and social media platforms. The photos provided are of the highest quality available
The first living troll to ever be caught on camera.
Police want our help so they submit a blurred photo, but they won’t argue for and submit mugshots of (definitely violent) kidnappers to help us?
The hypocrisy and arbitration is sickening.
“Positive-One” indeed…..
yeah, hypocrisy in asking the community to help its COMMUNITY.
please leave as soon as possible.
Weird how many people are doubting this happened. Whether she was “tasered” with a legitimate taser device, or she was poked with a stick, does it matter? An old woman was allegedly attacked and so many just nit pick and doubt.
SBTOWNIE – Of course there is no warrant out, there were no witnesses, therefore no corroborating evidence other than the woman’s statement. They want to question her to see if there is any veracity to the victim’s story. The cops don’t just go issuing arrest warrants based on only 1 person’s account of an alleged crime. That’s not how it works. And who said there were no marks on her clothes or body? This is a very brief and vague report. You seem to be overthinking it and adding assumptive “facts” when there’s no basis for them yet.
“There’s a reason they put “taser” in quotations.” – yeah, likely because it’s being used inappropriately as a verb in the report. I doubt it was some underhanded or sneaky attempt by the police to insinuate doubt that the attack even happened. Not everything is a conspiracy or detective novel.
Doulie, yes, I am thinking exactly along your lines. I believe this woman probably was attacked with a handheld close-range electrocution device, but highly unlikely it was a taser.
No one is doubting she was attacked. It’s a strange accusation many are making to say that anyone questioning the “taser”/”tasered” part of this story is then necessarily saying nothing happened. I don’t know what happened. What I know now is the facts we currently have (which are limited) don’t really support the likelihood of a taser being used. To those of us familiar with tasers, it sounds like she may have been attacked with a different close-range device that likely delivered far less power than a taser. I have not seen one comment here doubting this happened or accusing her of making up the attack. A taser is a serious weapon and will take someone down, especially and even more so if it is deployed on someone multiple times as some of the multi-fire devices can do.
SBT – “What I know now is the facts we currently have (which are limited) don’t really support the likelihood of a taser being used. ” – How so? What facts suggest she wasn’t attacked with some device? Whether it’s a “technical” taser device or not is irrelevant. Who cares if it was a full on police-issue taser or a weaker, common device. What’s the point?
Agreed. Gosh darn it those that have already been arrested are entitled to their privacy. Jokes
BICYCLIST – exactly. Arguing that she wasn’t “tasered” because of the type of device is like saying someone wasn’t “shot” with a spear gun, rather they were “speared.” It’s just petty semantics based on assumptions. The woman obviously felt she was zapped, stunned, shocked, tased, or whatever you need to call it so the device isn’t being “misrepresented” or something, but it’s just petty argumentative semantics at this point.
As BICYCLISTS and others have pointed out, there’s any number of electric-based devices she could have been attacked with. The specific name/type doesn’t really matter.
LUVADUCK if you keep your life’s savings solely in a savings account with meager interest, and suggest you find a financial planner ASAP! There’s no reason a dollar put away for 40 years should not have tripled in value by now, make your money work for you!
Without those pesky mug shots, it is a lot easier to make people disappear.
SBT – how is there “no way” she was tasered? Were you there? That’s a pretty bold statement to make about a reported crime.
Well, Sac, you can find puncture marks in a victim’s flesh or clothing if they were tased, for one. That would verify the crime. The PD put the word “tasered” in quotes for a reason. And they have only reasonable suspicion, not probable cause – probably because the evidence of the claims is lacking or not lining up with the victim’s statement. I believe the victim was possibly electrocuted somehow, but with the type of thing you get on Amazon.com to defend against your favorite breed of dog, not a taser, which is an entirely different weapon. That’s why they “want to question her” – not arrest her – and there is currently no warrant out.
Basic – Looking at flashlight photo in this article, in the front (bulb) end positioned from two sides towards the center there are two prongs. In the article this flashlight is identified as a “flashlight-taser.” The prongs lead me to believe this is a “flashlight-stun gun.”
SBTOWNIE – “This led to Hatipoglu using a flashlight-taser on the victim several times. ” – Hate to say it, but I told……. ah never mind. You know 😉
It’s not a Taser, Sac. Try reading Wikipedia on Taser and electroshock devices which spells out explicitly that the Taser term is misused. The PD is dumbing down the language for the masses who misuse the word taser. A taser will incapacitate people. A device you buy on Amazon is not capable of this. Just because the public cannot use correct language doesn’t mean I’m wrong. I am actually correct technically and factually correct. This is akin to saying you were macheted when someone jabbed you with a keychain Swiss army knife. This is not a taser and the PD is not correct in labeling it such. There is a reason LEO use Tasers – they can completely stop and fell people through neuromuscular incapacitation. This flashlight cannot do that at all. It is a different weapon and just because language is being misused doesn’t mean I’m incorrect. This should be my last commend on EdHat as I’ve requested to have my account deleted. I wish you all well but the bullying and pile ons here has truly become pathological and untethered from reality. The claims I said this woman made up her attack are the perfect example. I said no such thing and it is willfully deceitful to claim I did. I said she was not Tasered. And she was not.
You’re amazing. From Dictionary.com:
“tase
[ teyz ]
Middle School Level
verb (used with object) tased, tas·ing.
(sometimes initial capital letter) to electrically stun (a living target) using a Taser or similar stun gun:”
She was, by definition of the term, TASED, consistent with the SBPD report. I wish you luck in all the other battles with cold, hard reality you will choose to wage with that “thick skin” of yours. Godspeed!
Excuse me sir, that is not a Kleenex, its a tissue! Those are not Popsicles, they’re frozen fruit pops on a stick! That is not a Xerox copy, its a photocopy! They are not playing with a Frisbee, its a flying disc! One does not Google something, you search for it!
Is there anything more dull than a dullard nitpicking about something as inane as a registered brand name vs the common lexicon? phhhhffff
11:18 – You’re right, I need to work on that. All fine and dandy, but I am getting too wrapped up on this. It just really grabs my gullet when people make verifiably false proclamations of “fact” and then refuse to concede and even double down. In this day and age, false “facts” and other misinformation have been proven to be dangerous. I guess false facts about a local taser attack is not one to focus my energy on so much.
Another thing though, I always tend to think of the families of victims in stories on this site and when people like SBTOWNIE come to the thread with outrageous claims or demands, it bothers me to think the family and/or friends are reading those and seeing someone belittle and/or demand personal information about the situation or in this case, outright accuse the victim of lying.
But, overall you are right, thanks for the reminder. It’s Friday, time for me to relax!