Arturo Herrera
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY — Legend, mythology, and popular fiction are rife with circumstances of fratricide perhaps because it is so ultimately dramatic and because in our daily reality homicide between brothers is so viscerally repugnant even in concept.
But setting aside such violent pairs as found in the tragic legends of Romulus & Remus, The Bible (Cain & Abel), Steinbeck’s East of Eden (Cal & Aaron), and The Godfather (Michael & Fredo), passions between brothers do have the potential for tragic outcomes.
Evidence of that has been reported to the media by Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover regarding the July 4th arrest of 30-year-old Lompoc resident Arturo Herrera whom authorities have identified as the principle suspect in the homicide of his 28-year-old brother, Enrique Herrera.
It was just after noon on Independence Day when SBSD deputies responded to a 911 Emergency call made by Arturo Herrera reporting that “he’d discovered his younger brother had been assaulted” at the family home in the unincorporated area adjacent to The City of Lompoc. Upon entering the West Ocean Avenue residence, “deputies found Enrique Herrera inside his bedroom and determined he had been fatally injured” pursuant to what indeed appeared at the scene to have been a violent assault.
The immediately ensuing investigation, however, led deputies to conclude that not only had Arturo Herrera reported the assault, but that he was, in fact, the one who had committed it. With evidence supporting that suspicion, Arturo was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail where he was booked on a charge of murder, with his bail set at $1,000,000.
Photo: Courtesy Santa Barbara County Jail Booking
