Photo: Image of suspect Jacob Epifanio Lopez| San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office
There was a time not long ago when any felony suspect refusing to comply with the lawful orders of uniformed cops to peacefully alight from a vehicle brought to a halt after a wild car chase involving deputies from multiple jurisdictions as well as the CHP might have been a credible and justifiable target of deadly force. Little more than a decade ago, when deputies were confronted with a threatening suspect after a hair-raising car chase, that suspect was often found face down on pavement in a pool of his own blood.
But times and techniques have changed with the advent of highly-effective non-lethal alternatives to 9mm firepower when it comes to subduing dangerous suspects.
Evidence of this came on the afternoon of April 10th when San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department deputies—summoned to the scene of a street fight—found themselves pursuing a suspect who had fled the scene. According to SLOSD spokesman Deputy Tony Cipolla, a vehicle chase ensued with the suspect “driving erratically on Highway 1 and at times driving on the wrong side of the road.”
When the suspect failed to yield to a lights-and-sirens traffic stop, traveling at a high rate of speed into Santa Barbara County, California Highway Patrol officers were called into action, at which point they “deployed a spike strip” in the path of the fleeing vehicle. The vehicle was quickly disabled and brought to a halt, but the driver, 43-year-old Grover Beach resident Jacob Epifanio Lopez, refused to obey repeated commands as well as the entreaties of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department’s Crisis Negotiation Team for “more than an hour,” and continuously refused to exit the vehicle.
At that point, deputies “deployed pepper balls” into the vehicle, whereupon Lopez quickly alighted and was taken into custody. He was then transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on charges of reckless driving, failure to yield to law enforcement, evading arrest, and resisting arrest.
