Celia Bueno
Senior Staff Writer
In the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 20, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office entered the Biko House property in search of an individual who had fled a prior police intervention. The individual had been allegedly stopped by police earlier during the night and then ran away from them. After obstructing justice, the person was arrested and taken to the Santa Barbara County Jail. According to the protocol, he was released a few hours later.
Located at 6612 Sueño Rd., Biko House is one of the five co-ops in Isla Vista (I.V.). It is one of the most frequented locations on Friday and Saturday nights. Since last September, there have been 15 police interventions on Sueño Road, three of which took place in the vicinity of Biko House. It’s important to note that Biko House was not the cause of these interventions, but rather a location where some incidents occurred.
On the night of Oct. 19, the co-op was hosting “Nightmare on Sueño: Apocalypse,” an event announced on its Instagram account on Oct. 15. The event, scheduled to take place from 9 p.m. to midnight, had an unexpected visit when police entered the premises in search of an individual who had fled and was obstructing a police operation.
The Santa Barbara Police Department’s Daily Crime and Fire Log states that the arrest took place at 6612 Sueño Rd. at 1:26 a.m. Eyewitnesses in the vicinity, however, reported that by 10:40 p.m., the party at Biko House had already been shut down by police, and the venue had been fully cleared. The discrepancy in timing may be due to the fact that the police report was prepared the following day, on Oct. 21, and may not have accurately reflected the actual time of the arrest. Contrarily, sources close to the operation suggest that the formal arrest occurred hours later, after the police intervention at Biko House.
According to these sources, following standard procedure, the individual was taken to the Santa Barbara County Jail at 4436 Calle Real in Goleta, where adults arrested in I.V. are held. According to California Penal Code section 148(a)(1), punishment for obstructing or resisting authority may include fines of up to $1,000 and imprisonment for up to 12 months. Though the initial reason for police intervention involving this individual remains unknown, it can be confirmed that the arrested individual was neither a minor nor carrying any type of open container, as such circumstances are always specified in the Daily Crime and Fire Log. Nevertheless, obstruction of police operations is considered a significant aggravating factor.