Damian Gomez
GOLETA — As the holiday season approaches, the perils of alcohol consumption as a precedent to operating a motor vehicle could not have been made more manifest than the three-car collision occurring in the early evening of November 16th on the streets of Goleta, just north of the Santa Barbara City Limits.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, a rather dramatic accident involved a chain-reaction rear-end collision at a traffic light, wherein the first impacted vehicle slammed into the car in front of it.
Just as soon as all vehicles ground to a halt, “the driver and a passenger in the vehicle that caused the rear-end crash left the scene.”
Shortly thereafter, the two male occupants of the impacting vehicle that caused the accident were “apprehended by deputies at the adjacent shopping center” pursuant to witness reports and calls to 911 reporting the path taken by the suspects.
Damian Gomez, 26, and Bryan Carreno, 26, both hailing from Santa Barbara were tracked down by deputies and held at bay under threat of deadly force until they could be handcuffed and safely taken into custody.
Both men were transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where Gomez was booked on charges of DUI, DUI causing injury, hit and run, hit and run causing injury, and driving without a license, while Carreno was booked on a charge of battery pursuant to “an alleged assault” perpetrated on a citizen witness reporting Carreno’s flight from the cops.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
