An armed Orcutt man and former Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office deputy was shot and killed by current deputies on Dec. 28 during a standoff that ensued after the man allegedly murdered two of his relatives and another individual earlier that day.
David McNabb, 43, was found by deputies inside his Orcutt home on the 5900 block of Oakhill Drive at about 8 p.m., after an unidentified woman called to report to the Sheriff's Office that she had gone inside the house and found a body covered in blood in the bathtub. The caller reportedly then ran away from the house to call law enforcement, according to a Sheriff's Office press release.
McNabb was allegedly armed with a rifle when the first responders arrived, according to the release, and the Sheriff's Special Enforcement and Hostage Negotiation teams were called to the scene. An emergency notification was sent to residents in Oakhill Estates advising them to stay inside.
After deputies discovered that other individuals may have been alive and in danger in the house, law enforcement officials went further inside, made contact with McNabb, and shot him with a 40mm impact weapon and shotgun beanbag rounds in an attempt to subdue him. McNabb, according to the Sheriff's Office, continued to pose an immediate threat, and deputies opened fire. McNabb was later pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Inside McNabb's house, deputies found the bodies of his sister, 34-year-old Nicole McNabb; his mother, 64-year-old Melanie McNabb; and 63-year-old Carlos Echavarria; all Orcutt residents who had reportedly been stabbed and beaten to death.
It appears that the victims and McNabb all lived together in the house, according to the Sheriff's Office, and it is unclear why McNabb went on the alleged killing spree.
"The Sheriff's Office continues to investigate the motive and circumstances leading up to this horrific act of violence," the Sheriff's Office wrote in a statement released on Dec. 29, "and we send our heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the victims who were so senselessly killed."
McNabb was a former employee of the Sheriff's Office, where he worked as a custody deputy from 2001 until March 2012, when he "voluntarily resigned" for reasons the Sheriff's Office did not disclose. In September 2012, McNabb was arrested by the Oxnard Police Department and booked at the Ventura County Jail, and in May 2014, he was convicted of felony domestic violence and sentenced to jail time, according to the Sheriff's Office.
In June 2017, McNabb started work as a scale health operator for California Asphalt Productions Incorporated, a division of the company formerly known as Greka Energy. He was still employed there at the time of his death, according to a human resources official with the company.
The Sheriff's Office could not be reached for further information before the Sun's press time.
Several community and family members took to Facebook to mourn the deaths of those who were killed over the weekend. Dozens of people posted photos and lengthy captions to Nicole's Facebook page in the days following her death, memorializing her loving personality and sending condolences to her surviving children.
According to her Facebook profile, Nicole was charged with running Santa Maria-based David McNabb Construction, the company her father owned before his death in June 2018.
"I remember Nicole as a little girl, wide-eyed and beautiful," Jerry McNabb wrote in a Facebook post on Dec. 31. "She was always very shy, and I would tease her to get her to laugh. There was a great deal of pain in her life the last few years, and my heart breaks that her children will never see her again."
