The District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against a man who allegedly stabbed another man in Granny’s Field behind the Turnpike Center in Goleta on January 31, explaining evidence showed the stabbing was done in self-defense.
Senior Deputy DA Lee Carter said the decision was made “based on a credible defense, that being self-defense.” Luis Velasquez was originally arrested after a fight arose out of a verbal dispute among a group of four people living in a homeless encampment, leaving one man with a stab wound in the upper shoulder.
The incident led to a 30-minute lockdown of El Camino Elementary School and San Marcos High School while authorities searched for Velasquez. The person who suffered the stab wound was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.