Santa Barbara Homeowner Reveals New Details from Home Invasion-Turned-Standoff

Brazen Burglary Suspect Allegedly Showered, Helped Himself to Food While Mother and Daughter Barricaded Themselves in Another Room

Suspect German Hernandez Jr., 27, was taken into custody Thursday afternoon after barricading himself in an apartment near Verano Drive and San Martin Way. | Credit: SBPD

The same man charged with an early-morning break-in at a family residence located near Bishop Diego High School — taking a shower, rummaging through the clothes of two of the occupants, and flipping off the police while eating food from the family’s refrigerator and drinking his third glass of wine — had been released from Santa Barbara County Jail, where he’d been held on similar charges the day before.

German Hernandez Jr. — described as a homeless 27-year-old — was arraigned this Tuesday on first-degree charges of residential burglary and resisting arrest stemming from his dramatic extraction at the hands of city police officers on January 6 that took five hours to complete. Hernandez is being held on $500,000 bail.

He’d been released from County Jail on $50,000 bail on January 5 for similar charges involving another early-morning incident — this one starting at 8:15 a.m., not 9 a.m. — for which he was charged with loitering, burglary, and elder abuse.

Authorities are not releasing any details of the first incident, but in the second, attorney Dana Longo — whose house Hernandez had entered — described the incident in vivid detail in a Facebook post. Longo said that at least 30 law enforcement officers were involved before the day was through and that no tear gas was discharged, but a couple of police dogs needed to be deployed to get Hernandez out from one of his daughter’s closets, where he had holed himself up.

Longo said Hernandez entered the unlocked house shortly before 9 a.m., took a shower, and then helped himself to some food. Inside the house, Hernandez was reportedly heard speaking loudly on the phone with a friend, discussing how they could kill one of his ex-girlfriends.

Longo’s wife and one of his daughters were on the premises at the time but managed to barricade themselves in a room and then climb out a window and make their way to the roof before being rescued. No contact or communication took place between Hernandez and the Longo family members.

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