Photo: Stock Image
Santa Barbara County, Ca. – March 30, 2023 –It was just after midnight on March 29th when a 911 Emergency call alerted Santa Maria Police Dispatch to an assault and robbery on a downtown street which had just taken place.
Responding patrol unit officers made contact with three adult victims, only one of which escaped any injuries pursuant to physical assaults upon each of them. According to Santa Maria Police Department spokesman Sergeant Daniel Rios, the immediately ensuing investigation indicated that the assailants were “a small group of juveniles or young adults,” one of whom brandished a pistol during the robbery.
According to the victims, the young robbers fled in a vehicle and promptly “collided with a parked car” before making good their departure from the scene. Working on victim descriptions of the vehicle, it took the cops less than an hour to spot the suspect vehicle cruising down a thoroughfare, conduct a traffic stop and make contact with the driver, 19-year-old Santa Maria resident Saul Dolores Morelos.
Morelos was taken into custody and then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was initially booked on multiple charges of assault and armed robbery. Within hours, detectives determined that Morelos was also “connected’ to a January 30th carjacking and he was then charged in that crime.
Morelos remains in custody on a no-bail hold while one of his cohorts in the March 29th assault and robbery was identified as a 17-year-old Santa Maria resident and known gang member. He was contacted on the night of March 29th , taken into custody, and transported to Santa Barbara County Juvenile Hall where he was booked on multiple carjacking and vandalism charges.
