Photo: ghost gun
May 5, 2021 – Santa Barbara County, Ca.
One way an individual can earn some guaranteed special attention from cops is to have them see you committing a traffic violation and to then ignore those red lights and sirens coming up behind your vehicle.
That’s just what 32-year-old Lompoc resident Abel Carrillo did just before 9:30 p.m. on the streets of his hometown on April 30th . According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, instead of properly responding to what could have been a routine traffic stop, Carrillo “sped from the traffic stop at a high rate of speed” and then lead the cops on a chase through town.
During the pursuit, detectives got a glance of Carrillo behind the wheel and recognized him as having an active arrest warrant for violation of the terms of his active probation. Shortly thereafter, Carrillo alighted from his vehicle and took off on foot, sprinting through a car dealership lot and in and out of residential backyards. By then, the local area SBSD K9 unit was summoned to continue what developed into a fruitless search.
Absent their suspect, detectives searched Carrillo’s abandoned vehicle and discovered a cache of fentanyl pills packaged for sale, hypodermic needles, and a loaded 9mm “ghost gun assembled from parts without an serial numbers.”
The search for Carrillo ended five days later on the afternoon of May 4 th when the SBSD Compliance Response Team “spotted” Carrillo on a Lompoc residential street, promptly made contact, and took him into custody. He was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges that included felony wrong-way driving, felony evading, felony possession of narcotics for sale, possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia, felony probation violation, felony obstruction of a peace officer, and violation of his post-release supervision. He remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department
