Photo: Image of replica firearm| Santa Barbara PD
The current trend in “restrained enforcement” may be the reason that 47-year-old Jeremy Howell is alive today.
According to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesman Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale, it was early in the evening of November 14 th when SBPD patrol officers responded to a burglary report at an apartment complex in the city’s downtown residential neighborhood. During the course of their investigation—which entailed going door-to- door to speak with area residents—the cops knocked on an apartment door hoping to interview any potential witnesses to the reported crime.
The door was answered by an older man using a walker who spoke with the cops briefly before Howell approached from behind him and “pointed a handgun over the witness’s shoulder at the two officers.”
Immediately alerted to what appeared to be a lethal threat, the two cops “sought cover and drew their duty weapons.” The older man unhesitatingly grabbed Howell’s gun hand and attempted to “push him back into the apartment” while letting the cops know that the weapon in question was merely “a pellet gun.” At that point, the two cops shoved the old man aside and grappled with Howell, securing what was later determined to be “a loaded replica Colt Defender 1911 pellet gun.”
In what could easily have become a deadly incident wherein the officers at the scene may have defended themselves with lethal force, Ragsdale characterized the incident as one in which “officers used tremendous restraint by taking into account the totality of the situation.”
Lucky to be alive, Howell was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of brandishing a replica firearm and assault on a peace officer, with his bail set at $2500.
