Two Shootings in Northern Santa Barbara County: Arrests & Case Updates
– By F. Scott Faulkner
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY,CA — April 26, 2026 –– Two shootings in northern Santa Barbara County are at the center of a felony case now involving a loaded handgun found on a high school campus which led to the arrests of two students on charges of attempted murder.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel
Zick, “the first incident occurred March 3, followed by a second on March 19.”
Both involved a handgun and led to attempted murder allegations. The incident “included an attack on an
occupied vehicle and was carried out for the benefit of a criminal street gang.”
Detectives from the Santa Maria Police Department and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s
Office worked the case through March and into early April, identifying two suspects tied to the
shootings.
The first arrest came in early April, when Luis Alberto Mijandos Carmona, 18, of Santa Maria,
was taken into custody. He was later booked at the Santa Barbara County Jail and charged with
two counts of attempted murder, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and shooting at an
inhabited dwelling, along with sentencing enhancements.
The case expanded on April 22 when deputies went to Righetti High School in Orcutt to serve
an arrest warrant on 18-year-old Los Alamos resident Felix Alejandro Antonio Leon. A school
resource deputy contacted Leon on campus and discovered a loaded .380-caliber handgun. Leon
was “taken into custody without incident” and was transported to Santa Barbara County Jail,
where he was booked on “two counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a
semiautomatic firearm, three counts related to unlawful firearm activity, and one count of
shooting at an occupied vehicle.”
Both Carmona and Leon remain in custody on a no-bail hold.
