Domestic Dispute Leads to Wanted Couple’s Arrest in Orcutt
Arrests on Outstanding Warrants Made, Man Barricades Self at Home
An unspecified family disturbance in Orcutt’s Tanglewood neighborhood on Wednesday afternoon led to two arrests. When authorities responded around 4:15 p.m. to a home on the 2000 block of Briarwood Road, they arrested Raquel Lopez, 29, on a prior $60,000 arrest warrant for assault with a deadly weapon. She was booked into County Jail.
When authorities tried to make contact with Jose Villareal, 31 — Lopez’s boyfriend — he barricaded himself inside a bedroom of his Briarwood Road home. Villareal was “reportedly armed with a replica BB pistol and a samurai sword,” said Sheriff’s Office spokesperson Kelly Hoover in a press release. During the hour-long standoff, authorities talked with Villareal and sent out a reverse 9-1-1 warning to neighbors.
Santa Maria police, county firefighters, AMR paramedics, a Santa Barbara County Air Support Unit helicopter, and a K-9 team additionally responded to Briarwood Road. Upon Villareal’s nonviolent surrender, he was arrested and booked into County Jail on two $60,000 arrest warrants and new charges of assault with a deadly weapon, having ammunition as a convicted felon, and being in possession of an unspecified “explosive device.” Hoover’s press release said the explosive device “was made safe at the scene by deputies.” The District Attorney’s Office will decide how to prosecute the cases, said the Sheriff’s Office.
