Santa Barbara – While laws against voluntary suicide are rarely enforced—particularly in cases where the perpetrator is no longer alive for booking, indictment, and trial—on the afternoon of August 27th, Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies assigned to the now infamous Isla Vista Foot Patrol (after the recent months’ of student riots and rampaging gun violence within mere steps of the UCSB campus), “responded to a report of a suicidal suspect with a firearm” who had holed-up inside his apartment.
Deputies—certainly sensitive to any report of an individual brandishing a firearm anywhere near Isla Vista after a difficult summer—responded immediately to find Joshua Hillsburg, a 20-year old UCSB student announcing that he had both a loaded gun and a sincere intent to kill himself.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover, after deputies secured the area and established a perimeter, “Hillsburg came to the front door and when he saw deputies he attempted to retreat into a back bedroom.” The deputies, however, rather than waiting for an invitation to enter, rushed into the apartment and quickly subdued Hillsburg before he could act on his expressed intentions.
With Hillsburg “detained” for his own safety, deputies searched his bedroom and discovered a loaded .357 revolver “under a pillow” which they seized “pursuant to Section 8102 of the Welfare and Institutions Code”. While Hillsburg was being detained and the handgun was being properly managed by deputies, they observed “multiple sets of brass knuckles in plain view”, which now made Hillburg more than suicidal; it made him guilty of a crime for which he was summarily booked into Santa Barbara County Jail with his bail set at $20,000.
Read more:
Lompoc Record: Authorities subdue, arrest alleged suicidal USCB student
EdHat: IVFP arrests armed suicidal suspect
Noozhawk: UCSB student arrested, gun seized
