Jitters after shooting
The wounding of 2 near UC Santa Barbara recalls last year’s deadly rampage.
A shooting that left two students wounded near UC Santa Barbara on Monday evening was the result of a botched robbery that may have been drug-related, authorities said.
Two men were arrested in the attack that for a brief moment rekindled memories of Elliot Rodger’s stabbing and shooting rampage in Isla Vista almost one year ago that left six people dead.
Authorities said two men attacked the two students about 7:30 p.m. in their apartment in the 6500 block of Sabado Tarde Road. Residents managed to detain one of the men, 22-year-old James Joshua Taylor of Lompoc, as he tried to flee.
Taylor and a second man, Jose Guadalupe Gutierrez, 19, of Goleta, allegedly confronted the two students and robbed and shot them.
Gutierrez knew the students, but authorities wouldn’t say how. One of the students was shot in the abdomen and the other in the chest, authorities say.
Taylor was held by residents until deputies arrived. Authorities say Gutierrez went to a hospital in Goleta and told medical staff there that he’d been in a car accident at the university.
But his story didn’t hold up, said Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Kelly Hoover. Gutierrez’s injury forced him to transfer to a Santa Barbara hospital, where detectives found him.
He’ll be taken into custody when he’s released.
Taylor was hospitalized with a head injury. Details of Gutierrez’s injury were not immediately available
Taylor and Gutierrez were booked in absentia on suspicion of attempted murder, robbery, discharging a firearm causing great bodily injury and participation in a street gang.
They will be taken into custody after they are medically cleared.
Police said the victims did not appear to have gang ties.
On Tuesday morning, students walked to and from class and rode skateboards and bikes down the street, which is two blocks from the beach.
Garrett Yost, a 21-yearold student at Santa Barbara City College who has lived across the street for about a year, said more than anything, he is disappointed that violent crime is tainting the reputation of a lovely community.
Yost said that despite the shooting, he’s only slightly concerned for his safety. “I think what our house decided is to be more conscious of locking our doors and keeping our doors shut,” he said.
The university had imposed a lockdown on dorms and advised students, faculty and staff to shelter in place after the shooting.
The lockdown was lifted before 9 p.m., university officials said.
The latest violence comes nearly a year after Rodger’s rampage left six people dead before he shot himself.
Richard Martinez, whose son, Christopher, was one of those killed, said in a statement that the latest shooting was “the worst kind of reminder that gun violence can happen at any time and any place.”
His son’s death prompted Martinez to press for stronger gun control laws.
Last year’s massacre began when Rodger fatally stabbed three people, including his two roommates, before driving across Isla Vista and firing more than 55 rounds.
Fourteen people were wounded in the rampage.
Hannah Vidmar, a senior at UC Santa Barbara, was hanging out with a friend outside her home Monday night when she received a text saying there had been a shooting near campus.
She said that although she found out that the incident was isolated, “at the same time, this is a wound that is being reopened.”
Last year, during Rodger’s rampage, Vidmar heard a gunshot.
On Monday night, panicked friends and family called from out of town to make sure she was safe.