After an extensive search that went into the wee hours of this morning, October 28, Santa Barbara police weren’t able to locate a man wanted for assault with a deadly weapon, false imprisonment, and drug possession.
The long night began around 6 p.m., when two county probation officers were doing a routine probation search of Yvonne Mata, 30, at 214 S. Canada St. Inside her trailer at the Flamingo Mobile Home Park on the Eastside, probation officers allegedly found marijuana and a locked metal box, which they asked her to unlock.
She told the officers that her boyfriend, Daniel Aguilar, 34, had the key, but was not home. Aguilar arrived later, and agreed to open the box. When he did, the officers saw cocaine. Then, according to Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte, Aguilar pulled a handgun on the officers and “held the probation officers at gunpoint inside the trailer,” demanding they not take Mata and him to jail.
As he continued to allegedly point the gun at the officers, who were unarmed, they convinced him to leave, and he took the cocaine with him, Duarte said. The officers immediately called the Police Department, who responded and surrounded the trailer park.
Authorities believed Aguilar was in the trailer park, but after a roughly eight-hour search concluding at 3:30 a.m., they were unable to find him. The department’s Special Weapons and Tactics Team was on hand, as were K-9 units and a helicopter overhead.
Police consider Aguilar armed and dangerous and urge anyone with knowledge of Aguilar’s whereabouts to call the department at (805) 897-2300.