Santa Barbara Police arrest two men while checking local convenience store

Ryan Dickinson

SANTA BARBARA, CA – The Santa Barbara Police Department arrested two men while checking out a local convenience store. According to police, on January 7, 2021 at approximately 11:00 P.M., Officers from a Santa Barbara Police Department specialized unit, conducted a premise check at a local convenience store in the 400 Block of North Milpas.

During the check, Officers contacted Gabriel Alejandro Fonseca, age 27, and Felipe Alejandro Florez, also age 27. Both Santa Barbara residents where known to Officers and associated with a criminal street gang.

Fonseca was found to be on active parole. Once Fonseca exited the store, Officers informed him of their intent to conduct a parole compliance check. As Officers were moving in to conduct the search, Fonseca fled. As Officers grabbed a hold of Fonseca, he immediately reached for his waist band. Fonseca refused all commands to stop and his actions became more aggressive. Because of this, Fonseca was taken to the ground.

While on the ground, Fonseca continued to violently resist and was able to regain his footing and attempted to flee. Officer were successful in a second take-down. Throughout the struggle,


Fonseca continued to reach for his waist band and was calling out to Flores for help.

Flores, standing near Officers during the struggle at times appeared as if he was going to jump into the struggle to aid Fonseca.

Additional resources were requested and arrived on scene. Upon the arrival of additional Officers, Fonseca was eventually taken into custody and Flores was detained. During a subsequent search, after Fonseca was detained and in custody, one Officer located a loaded handgun in Fonseca’s waist band.

Additionally, Officers conducted a visual search of the vehicle associated with the two and observed a handgun wedged between the driver seat and center console. Both weapons were loaded. Fonseca and Flores were booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail on numerous felony charges stemming from weapons violations and violating parole.

You appear to be using an ad blocker

Shore News Network is a free website that does not use paywalls or charge for access to original, breaking news content. In order to provide this free service, we rely on advertisements. Please support our journalism by disabling your ad blocker for this website.