Bill Macfadyen: Bear Causes Stir at Rincon Point But Day at the Beach Has No Happy Ending | Local News
The Los Angeles Dodgers recorded their 90th victory Aug. 24, the fastest any Dodger club has reached that important milestone. If they achieve the projected 116 wins in their 162-game regular season, they’ll go down as one of the greatest baseball teams of all time.
Of course, I have two adult children who weren’t alive the last time the Dodgers were even in a World Series so anything short of a ring this time is, well, a loss.
This has been a truly magical season, which makes it all the more disappointing that the Dodgers’ covetous ownership continues to snub its fans with its cockamamie cable TV contract scheme. With all these exciting, charismatic, budding and veteran all-stars and their unbelievable exploits, it’s hard to understand why they would willingly write off a generation of new fans. Frankrupt McCourt would approve.
It is said that greed is good. The Dodgers are both, and what an unfortunate missed opportunity this year has been.
Meanwhile, I told you in my last column that Noozhawk’s traffic would rebound this week, and did it ever. According to our Google Analytics, we had 153,797 readers this past week. This is my take on your Top 5 stories:
Living as they do at one of the world’s most famous surfing spots, Rincon Point residents are used to unusual sights in their neighborhood. A black bear is an entirely different animal, however.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, a black bear arrived in the exclusive enclave east of Carpinteria the afternoon of Aug. 19. The bear, an adult male weighing 250-300 pounds, wandered around for a bit before making its way to the beach. Because that’s just what you do on a sunny, summer, Saturday afternoon at the Rincon.
As astonished onlookers took pictures and videos, the bear ambled to and fro, apparently in no hurry to leave.
Game wardens soon arrived to monitor the bear’s behavior, said Lt. J.C. Healy of the state Fish & Wildlife Department.
“He finally settled on a hillside near some water,” he said, adding that the animal likely followed Rincon Creek to the ocean.
Healy said the wardens were hoping the bear “would go back to more suitable habitat,” but it had not moved by the next day. Whether you’re talking pets, livestock or wild animals, that is never a good sign.
“At 6 a.m. (Aug. 20), the bear was still there, and it appeared very lethargic,” Healy said. “Wardens approached and tranquilized the animal.”
The bear was transported to a veterinary facility, but its health was said to be deteriorating rapidly and it was euthanized.
You get the Amber Alerts but do you ever expect them to end up in your neighborhood? (Tom Bolton / Noozhawk photo)
Daniel Morozov needs our prayers. In the span of 24 hours, the 9-year-old Santa Maria boy went from having a mom and a dad to being orphaned and alone.
The bizarre, fast-moving chain of events was bewildering for our veteran reporters to cover. I can only imagine the fear and horror Daniel must have experienced as it unfolded, which included watching at least one parent — and possibly both — shot in front of him.
The first chapter of the saga began about 8:45 p.m. Aug. 21 when Santa Maria police reported the murder of Daniel’s mother, Natalia Morozova, at an apartment in the 200 block of North College Drive, a block north of East Main Street.
An Amber Alert was issued for the boy, who was believed to have been taken by the shooting suspect, 48-year-old Konstantin Morozov, Daniel’s father and Morozova’s ex-husband.
The Morozoves were embroiled in a bitter divorce battle, and were scheduled to appear in Santa Barbara County Superior Court on Aug. 24. More on that in a moment.
Chapter Two started the next morning when Morozov’s black Jeep Cherokee was found parked in a quiet Santa Barbara neighborhood off North La Cumbre Road near Hope School and the Five Points Shopping Center.
Residents on Maricopa Drive called Santa Barbara police to report that the license plate, make and model of the unfamiliar vehicle matched the Amber Alert.
There was no sign of father or son, but one neighbor, Randy Mantooth, told our Tom Bolton that he had happened to look out a window about 2:45 a.m. and saw a man get out of the Jeep and into an older, light-colored sedan.
“I didn’t think much about it till he got into the other car,” he said, adding that he figured it was just someone coming home from a bar.
Mantooth said he didn’t “put two and two together” until a neighbor pointed out the connection to the Amber Alerts they had received the night before. He described the incident as “eerie.”
As that chapter petered out in Santa Barbara County, authorities were opening a third one in Los Angeles County, where Los Angeles police and the FBI were staking out an apartment in the 5500 block of Lindley Avenue in Encino, in the shadow of Highway 101.
Just before 7 p.m., the surveillance crew spotted the fugitive and the boy.
“The suspect exited a home along with the 9-year-old boy, and that’s when an officer-involved shooting occurred,” LAPD Officer Mike Lopez told Tom, explaining that Morozov was critically wounded in the shooting.
Morozov was taken into custody but died of his wounds at a nearby hospital. A firearm was recovered at the scene, Lopez added.
There were no other injuries in the incident, and Daniel apparently was unhurt physically. Lopez said the boy was placed in protective custody with the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services.
Daniel, a student at Pine Grove Elementary School in Orcutt, has no other family in the United States. According to court documents obtained by Noozhawk, his parents were both Russian immigrants who were married in Los Angeles in 2002.
Morozov, who reportedly was granted political asylum in 2002, apparently worked as a nurse in the Lompoc and Santa Maria valleys.
Morozova most recently was employed as a teacher’s aide at a local school. Friends described her as devoted to her only child and to her church, the Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Orcutt, where a memorial service was held for her the night of Aug. 22.
She filed for divorce in 2015, alleging that her husband physically abused and threatened her. He, in turn, accused her of committing fraud in the United States and Russia, the documents say.
Their divorce was finalized in June, but the couple was battling ferociously over financial matters and Daniel’s custody arrangement. They were due in court Aug. 24 for a hearing on $200,000 that Morozov apparently owed his ex-wife from the sale of their former home in Orcutt.
A family friend has started a GoFundMe page to support Daniel. Click here to make an online donation.
Not again. (Zack Warburg / Noozhawk photo)
A woman who was struck and killed by an Amtrak train in Montecito on Aug. 19 was identified as Elaine Enick, a 62-year-old resident of nearby Butterfly Lane.
Sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover said Enick was hit by the northbound Pacific Surfliner about 3:20 p.m. near the Butterfly Lane tunnel underneath Highway 101.
The conductor told investigators the woman was walking along the railroad tracks and, in spite of the train’s horn blaring, stepped onto the rails and into the path of the oncoming locomotive.
She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Hoover said the sheriff’s Coroner’s Office is investigating the circumstances of the incident.
Enick is survived by her husband, Bob Margevicius.
According to her obituary from Beinhauer Family Funeral Homes in McMurray, Pa., Enick was an entrepreneur, options trader and real estate management professional whose true passion was horses. She competed internationally as a world-class jumper and is a previous national champion in her discipline, the obituary says.
A celebratory Mass will be held Aug. 26 at St. Louise de Marillac Catholic Church in Upper Saint Clair, Pa. A service is being planned for the end of September in Santa Barbara.
Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History." height="667" width="1000" />Things were looking up Aug. 21 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. (Brooke Holland / Noozhawk photo)
The Aug. 21 coast-to-coast eclipse may not have cast a total shadow on Santa Barbara County, but plenty of locals still got caught up in the excitement of the rare spectacle.
At popular or even unusual vantage points throughout the region, groups of people could be found gazing heavenward, sharing the historic moment while passing around special eclipse glasses or improvised viewers made out of cereal and shoe boxes, and even colanders.
And then there was my daughter, Kirsten, who raced up the mountain at the last minute to catch her glimpse while wearing sunglasses and looking through her car’s sun roof. She’s always been resourceful, that one. It’s a good thing our health insurance includes vision care.
Despite the hype, the morning marine layer in Montecito had me prepared to throw shade on the whole partial-total eclipse experience. As if on cue, though, right around 10 a.m. the sun burned through to provide just enough cloud cover for my safe viewing pleasure. Thanks, God.
As the moon passed between the sun and the Earth, the coast-to-coast total solar eclipse darkened the sky for a 70-mile-wide, diagonal “path of totality” between Salem, Ore., and Charleston, S.C. The last time that happened was 1918, the next one is in 2024.
Jack Ucciferri’s prepared statement names names, a no-no." height="667" width="1000" />Jack Ucciferri’s prepared statement names names, a no-no. (Joshua Molina / Noozhawk photo)
Jack Ucciferri describes himself as a “Berniecrat” in his campaign for a nonpartisan Santa Barbara City Council seat in the Nov. 7 election. In the ballot statement he submitted to the City Clerk’s Office, he even included a sentence declaring, “I will represent the Bernie Sanders movement.”
The only problem is that you can’t do that. And it’s got nothing to do with Sanders, who lost last year’s Democratic presidential nomination to Hillary Clinton, who lost to Donald Trump.
“Under the law, the candidate’s statement shall not include the party affiliation of the candidate nor membership or activity in partisan political organizations,” City Clerk services manager Sarah Gorman explained to our Josh Molina.
Of all people, you would think that Sandernistas would be more familiar with the rules of engagement in the ballot process by now.
Ucciferri, a 38-year-old Realtor, told Josh he chose to remove the sentence, but isn’t sure what to do next.
What he probably should do is get out there in District 6 and start talking to prospective voters. After all, he’s running against longtime Councilman Gregg Hart, who has wide name recognition and is sitting on a campaign kitty north of $101,000. Ucciferri has neither.
Aside from his Bernie ambitions, Ucciferri’s campaign platform calls for closing Lower State Street to cars, supporting food trucks, and prioritizing alternative transportation and multiple modes of mobility. He’s also an advocate for home-sharing and considers himself a “social entrepreneur.”
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? 1,000 Acres Charred by Rey Fire Burning Along Paradise Road.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Tough luck, Four-Four, but I’m hoping a World Series ring eclipses this heartbreaker: Dodgers’ Rich Hill Is Nearly Perfect, but Loses After ‘One Bad Pitch’.
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Watch It
This is worth $5.63 of your time. Just don’t leave your dog in the car while you’re watching it.
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— Bill Macfadyen is NoozhawkQs founder and publisher. Contact him at [email protected], follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
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