Mark Pompa
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — In what will surely qualify for a top-tier ranking in this year’s Darwin Awards, in which acts of consummate foolishness are acknowledged by the world at large, 27-year-old Santa Maria resident Mark Pompa’s actions in the early evening of March 17th merit considerable recognition.
According to Santa Maria Police Department spokesman Sgt. Daniel Rios, Pompa was riding his bicycle when he allegedly committed a traffic violation.
Because his errant cycling skills were observed by a passing SMPD patrol officer, the cop attempted a routine traffic stop.
Pompa, in just one of many errors of judgment that day, didn’t initially yield to the red lights and siren just off his rear wheel, but eventually did so some distance away from the site of his infraction.
When the patrol officer made contact with Pompa, he quickly determined that he “was on parole and known to use a controlled substance.”
From the outset, Pompa apparently was not happy with the traffic enforcement proceedings, and “refused to submit to detention,” whereupon he “physically resisted and struck the officer,” a move well known to the rest of the world as problematic in the long run.
During the ensuing altercation, “the officer called for a backup unit to assist,” and when reinforcements arrived, they did indeed assist.
Pompa was ultimately subdued and taken into custody, but not before inflicting injuries to the “face, head, and arm” of the arresting officer and injuring the arm of one of the back-up cops.
Everyone involved was transported to Marian Medical Center for treatment, but Pompa was the only one taken to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of resisting a peace officer, resisting an officer with force or violence, assault on a peace officer causing injury, and parole violation.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
