The County of Santa Barbara reached a $850,000 settlement agreement with the family of 26-year-old Bryan Carreño, who was fatally shot by Sheriff’s deputies in 2017. Carreño at the time was suicidal and holding a knife when a group of five deputies cornered him ― and themselves ― on the small back patio of a La Cumbre–area home he’d broken into. The deputies fired a total of 27 shots, 20 of which struck Carreño.
Carreño’s family had filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the Sheriff’s Office in federal court, arguing the deputies used excessive force to subdue Carreño when less-lethal means were available, including a K-9 unit at the scene. They also presented evidence that two of the deputies had firsthand knowledge of Carreño’s suicidal tendencies, as they’d been dispatched to his home twice in the year prior when he was threatening to kill himself. The department ought to have taken Carreño’s mental-health issues into greater consideration as they formulated their response that night, the lawsuit argued. Carreño’s father, a retired custody deputy with the Sheriff’s Office, had called 911 asking for help for his son.
According to internal county records ― obtained last year by the Independent as part of a public records request ― a Sheriff’s Office Shooting Board convened after the incident found “supervisors did not implement basic emergency incident management protocols.” It was also “unclear if a perimeter was established prior to making contact with the subject,” when all five deputies found themselves trapped with Carreño in a tight outdoor space that offered little means of maneuvering. “Provide training emphasizing in establishment of inner and outer perimeter,” the board recommended.