Photo: Jorge Tafoya
April 5, 2022 – Santa Barbara County, Ca.
Since the beginning of the year, the City of Lompoc, sitting on a westernmost continental promontory with a local economy driven by the presence of Lompoc Federal Penitentiary, has become something of a “shooting gallery,” with an accelerating rate of homicides by gunfire.
The murderous momentum started just after midnight on February 19, 2022, with Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department deputies responding to a reported shooting on the 1000 block of the city’s North H Street. According to Lompoc Police Department spokesman Sgt. Scott Morgan, upon arrival deputies discovered a victim—later identified as 37-year-old
Lompos resident Maurilio Delacruz–“who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds,” from which he died while enroute to a local area trauma center.
No suspects were determined at the time of the shooting, but the ensuing investigation led homicide detectives to identify 18-year-old Lompoc resident Jorge Tafoya Jr. as the principal suspect in the slaying. Lompoc Police Department’s Sgt. Vincent Magallon reported that a warrant for the arrest of Tafoya Jr. was issued on March 30 th.
That warrant was executed at Tafoya Jr.’s West Pine Avenue residence later that same day. He was contacted and summarily taken into custody and transported to Lompoc City Jail, where he was booked on suspicion of homicide. He remains in custody on a no-bail hold.
Photo: Courtesy Lompoc City Jail
