Photo: Suspect Halen Bretz | Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office
On the morning of July 11th , residents of Summerland, the uniquely charming hillside community with the highest-per-square-foot cost of residential housing on the California coastline, sharp-eyed residents called 911 Emergency Dispatch with an alarming report of an intruder.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, the distress call described “a male intruder armed with a knife who had instructed residents not to contact emergency services.”
That admonition notwithstanding, SBSD patrol deputies were on the scene with all due alacrity, but failed to locate the suspect who had fled the area. The immediately ensuing investigation led to the release of surveillance video images of a guy holding a large knife and wearing a knit cap pulled over his face with a gaping hole that allowed for visibility. Photographs of the suspect were published on social media and in the local press as detectives sought to identify him.
Within a couple of hours, a positive identification of 30-year-old Santa Barbara resident Halen Bretz was made, with his photo widely disseminated throughout the community. Later that same afternoon, a local citizen spotted Bretz at a Carpinteria 7-11 Store. Minutes later, deputies rolled onto the scene and took Bretz into custody. He was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of brandishing a knife, residential burglary, and dissuading a witness.
Bretz remains in custody on a no-bail hold pursuant to his probation detainer.
