Photo: Maxwell Tracy
Santa Barbara – When family issues devolve into potentially dangerous full-blown “domestic disturbance” situations, police response is generally straightforward, immediate, and inflexible.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Riley Harwood, the early evening “report of a 911 hang-up call” was enough to initiate such a police response.
That abruptly abbreviated call for police services from a downtown Santa Barbara apartment residence soon had cops knocking on a door in the 1200 block of Laguna Street, just blocks from Santa Barbara Police Headquarters.
On the basis of conducting “a welfare check” pursuant to the 911 call, cops soon found themselves dealing with “a male subject inside the residence who refused to open the door.” The man inside, identified as 29-year-old Santa Barbara resident Maxwell Tracy, informed the police on the other side of the door that he was armed with a gun and would not hesitate to “shoot them should they attempt to enter the home.”
That sort of comment doesn’t usually sit very well with cops, and in no time a perimeter was established around the residence and nearby neighbors were evacuated from their homes. A Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team was soon on hand, as were detectives attached to the SBPD Crisis Negotiations Response Team (CNRT).
As these resources were called into action, detectives learned that Tracy had his 10-week-old infant child in the home, that he was “intoxicated, uncooperative, erratic, and very agitated.”
The combined efforts of the law enforcement teams eventually brought Tracy out of the residence at approximately 1:50 a.m., whereupon he was taken into custody without further incident. His infant child was found unharmed.
Tracy was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of making felony threats toward a police officer, making criminal threats, and child endangerment.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
