Cops & Robbers Rundown, September 12-14

Santa Barbara police responded to a call of an assault with a deadly weapon early Saturday morning, arriving at the 1100 block of Cacique Street to find a 20-year-old male victim with a bandage on his cheek. Under the bandage was a small cut on the man’s cheek, and there were also cuts on his chest and arm, though the man refused medical treatment.

According to a press release from Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte, the victim told officers he had been drinking not long after midnight Saturday morning with people he knew, including 28-year-old Carlos Lopez-Perez, who asked the victim for a cigarette. “Then for no apparent reason Lopez-Perez became upset with the victim, threatened the victim, and then broke two beer bottles,” Duarte said. “Lopez-Perez, now armed with broken bottles in each hand, began to swing at the victim.”

The alleged victim attempted to protect himself by lifting his arms. Lopez-Perez eventually fled to a nearby home, where he was taken into custody. Police booked him into Santa Barbara County Jail for assault with a deadly weapon.

Sunday night, Santa Barbara police were dispatched to Cottage Hospital on a stabbing call. According to authorities, the 23-year-old male victim said he had been sitting in his parked vehicle with his two sisters near the Fairway Market on the 100 block of South Salinas Street, when a Hispanic male adult approached the vehicle, yelling out a gang name. The victim got out of the car, according to a press release from Duarte, and he thought he was punched in the stomach by the suspect. The punch was really a stab to the abdomen, and as the suspect fled, the victim drove himself to the hospital. Detectives are still investigating the incident.

Santa Barbara police also received three separate reports of a male suspect making lewd comments or exposing himself to bystanders at Santa Barbara City College and on the 100 block of East Cabrillo Boulevard. Victims describe the suspect as a five-foot-six to five-foot-eight Hispanic male in his twenties, with a spiked haircut. Anyone with information should call the police at (805) 897-2300.