On the afternoon of Jan. 15, officers from the Allan Hancock College Police Department arrested a man who they said entered an apartment without permission in the 900 block of East Jones and began spraying a person inside with a fire extinguisher.
According to a press release issued by Santa Maria Police Department, Jose Luis Picos, 48, allegedly sprayed the contents of the extinguisher under the front door of an apartment and then broke its front window. The victim, who was inside the apartment, reportedly opened the front door to confront Picos, who then allegedly began spraying the victim in the face with the white, dry chemical powder from the extinguisher. Two other people, an adult female and a 2-year-old boy, were also inside the apartment, according to police.
Officers reported that the victim fought back with a chair while Picos continued spraying. The suspect then allegedly dropped the fire extinguisher and ran across the street to a nearby Allan Hancock College parking lot where he began slashing tires on vehicles that were parked there. Picos was apprehended, then taken into custody by Allan Hancock police, according to the Santa Maria Police Department.
Police said the victim was having trouble breathing and was transported to a hospital for treatment, adding that the alleged attack was completely unprovoked. Classes weren’t in session at the time the incident took place.
This fire extinguisher case took place just a couple of weeks after Hancock student Terence Richardson was shot in the same area, on the 1000 block of East Jones, though those events aren’t necessarily related.
Two Hancock basketball players, Lavell White, 22, and Ali Muhammed, 19, were arrested in connection with Richardson’s death, which occurred on Dec. 30. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney is charging those two suspects with murder and attempted robbery. There was an arraignment hearing in the case on Jan. 16, which was continued to Feb. 3.
When the Hancock Athletics Department found out about the arrests, the athletes were taken off the basketball roster and suspended from the team, according the Andrew Masuda, a college spokesperson.
Jan. 20 was the first day back on campus after the holidays for Hancock students Andrew Murguia and Sal Lopez. While both students were aware of the shooting death of a former student, they told the Sun that they were unaware of the fire extinguisher attack in the same area.
Despite the attack and the shooting death, they said they felt safe on campus. However, both students expressed concern over the apartment complex across the street on East Jones.
“I feel like being around here in Santa Maria is OK,” Murguia said. “The neighborhood across the street could use a bit of a cleanup.”
This article appears in Jan 22-29, 2015.