Two Arrested in Connection with Recent Lompoc Area Shootings
By F. Scott Faulkner
Sept.19, 2024 – Santa Barbara County, CA
Citizens of the City of Lompoc, home to Vandenberg Space Force Base—former home to NASA’s Space Shuttle program and now the site of almost weekly Space X launches—have recently heard as much gunfire as they have rocket launches. Evidence of that came early in the evening of September 15th as Lompoc Police Department Officers responded to “a report of shots fired” according to LPD spokesman Sgt. Scott Morgan. Upon arrival, officers found a female victim wounded and bleeding from a gunshot wound. She was immediately transported to an area hospital and is now “listed in stable condition.”
As the investigation into the shooting was getting under way, just an hour later police were called to a different downtown Lompoc address for another report of gunfire. Responding officers failed to find a victim of that second shooting, but witness reports were quickly collected and assessed, leading to the identification of 35-year-old Lompoc resident Victor Leon Simmons as “an individual involved both shootings,” Morgan confirmed.
LPD detectives went to work, and within 48 hours officers had located, and on September 18th made contact with Simmons who was promptly taken into custody and transported to Lompoc City Jail. While Simmons was being booked on multiple firearms violations, detectives executed a search warrant at a residence in Lompoc belonging to Simmons’ associate, 29-year-old Roderick Richardson. Inside, detectives found an un-serialized short-barreled AR-15 rifle, often referred to as a “ghost gun,” along with a loaded high-capacity magazine and additional ammunition in various calibers.
Richardson, a convicted felon, was arrested and transported to Lompoc City Jail where he was booked on multiple weapons violations, including being a felon in possession of firearms. Both men remain in custody on a no-bail hold.
