Full Notification

SANTA BARBARA, CA – Thursday, July 19, 2018
 
 
Police swiftly disarm rogue bodyguard brandishing weapon
 
On Thursday, July 19, 2018 at about 3:24 in the afternoon, the Santa Barbara Police Department Combined Communications Center was inundated with 911 calls reporting a rapidly escalating road rage incident involving the brandishing of a gun, happening in full view of the pedestrian-packed 1000 block of State Street.
 
Two men occupying the front seat of a southbound parked large purple-toned Lexus SUV verbally tangled with an older male victim who exited his now parked silver convertible two-door Porsche and hobbled with the assistance of a cane towards the two in the SUV.
 
The male driver of the SUV, later identified as Chris Michael Bair, a 34-year-old Orange County bodyguard, continued to yell and verbally threaten the victim.  In a fit of anger, the subject pointed a fully-loaded and bullet-chambered 40-caliber Glock handgun directly at the older man, claiming he had the right to do so because he posed a valid concealed carry permit.
 
Within minutes of the initial 911 report, numerous officers responded to the scene with lights and sirens. The first officers to arrive on scene discovered a vehicle matching the description of the one called in by witnesses and took the two subjects inside it into custody at gunpoint.
 
Subsequently, during the course of the investigation, multiple witness statements corroborated that the older man remained the victim throughout the confrontation.
 
Bair was booked at the Santa Barbara County Jail for brandishing of a gun and making felony terrorist threats toward the male victim, and remains there on $50,000 bail.