Santa Barbara – As the poet Robert Frost is oft-quoted, “Good fences make good neighbors,” which would imply where there is no fence, bad things can happen.
Shurikens
Apparently that was the very much case on the night of Thursday, June 4th, when multiple 911 Emergency calls reported a violent dispute between two Santa Barbara residential neighbors that became so alarming that others throughout the area were fearing for their own safety, as well as for the safety of those embroiled in the dispute. According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Affairs Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, when uniformed patrol officers arrived on the scene “code 3, lights and siren,” they quickly learned that the report describing an agitated individual inside of his neighbor’s house wielding an axe as a weapon and wreaking havoc with it was remarkably accurate.
Dirks
As the officers entered the victim’s residence, they confronted Rudolph Menfre Collaso, 54, and ordered him to withdraw from the premises. Once outside, Collaso was taken into custody and found to be in possession of concealed throwing knives and a concealed dagger “with metal knuckles affixed.” Evidence and eyewitness statements at the scene indicated that Collaso had been engaged in a running vociferous dialogue with the victim earlier in the day, during which shouted epithets were exchanged across their shared property line. It was at that point that, according to Harwood, “Collaso then retrieved a brush axe and pursued the victim with it,” chasing him into his own house, and then following him inside. When the victim managed to slip out the back door of the home to hide in a neighbor’s horse stable area, Collaso proceeded to use the axe to commit “over $100,000 of vandalism damage” as he searched the house for his prey.
Collaso was arrested and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, terrorist threats, burglary, vandalism, possession of a shuriken, possession of metal knuckles, and possession of a dirk or dagger, with his bail set at $1,000,000.00
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
