Washington Elementary School
SANTA BARBARA — Santa Barbara’s Washington Elementary School—with perhaps the best ocean vistas of any elementary school in the state—was the site of a police-mandated lockdown on the morning of March 14th when the driver of a stolen Volkswagen Jetta abandoned the wrecked vehicle and fled the scene by running through the campus while classes were in session.
It all began at approximately 9:30 a.m., according to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Sgt. Joshua Morton, when the car crashed into a nearby apartment complex. “Two males fled from the scene,” one of whom ran through nearby La Mesa Park, while another made his way “through school grounds,” giving rise to the school being “placed on lockdown” while officers conducted a search for the suspects. During the search for the driver and his passenger, the vehicle was confirmed as stolen out of Ventura the prior day.
The school lockdown was lifted an hour later with no trace of the suspects. Later that morning, Nathan Christopher Stevens, a 34-year-old resident of Ventura, was located pursuant to witness identification and “determined to be under the influence of a controlled substance at the time of contact and was arrested,” Morton reported.
The second suspect remains at large, while Stevens was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail and booked on charges of hit-and-run, vehicle theft, prowling, felon in possession of ammunition, possession of stolen property, and possession of burglary tools, with his bail set at $50,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara Unified School District
