Tire irons, knives brandished in parking lot fight

SANTA BARBARA — A local area Vons supermarket parking lot became the scene of a verbal exchange that quickly escalated into a violent fight involving the use of deadly weapons last week.

At approximately 7 p.m. Wednesday, a 44-year-old Carpinteria man pulled into the parking lot, leaving his 48-year-old female companion in the car while he alighted to do some grocery shopping.

“The victim got into a verbal exchange with a younger man which quickly escalated into a physical confrontation,” explained Drew Sugars, spokesman for the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office.

The younger man, Giovanni Aceves, 21, was quickly joined by his mother Carmen Aceves, 52, as she got out of her vehicle to join the altercation, along with Charles Dorado, 33, at her side. As the verbal exchange became physical, Dorado returned to his car to retrieve a tire iron, by which time “the mother had also armed herself with a tire iron,” Sugars said, “while the son retrieved a knife and began slashing the tires on the victim’s car.”

As the victim’s female companion was calling 911 on her cell phone, the younger Aceves threatened her with the knife and then retreated to his vehicle and fled the scene with his mother and Dorado.

Responding sheriff’s units spotted the Aceves’ vehicle within minutes traveling through Goleta and, according to Sugars, “conducted a standard traffic stop which revealed a knife and two tire irons inside the vehicle.”

All three occupants of the car were arrested at the scene for felony assault with a deadly weapon and were booked into Santa Barbara County Jail with bail set at $30,000 each.