SANTA BARBARA – A 26-year-old man was rushed to the hospital in the early morning hours on Sunday after being hit in the face in the Santa Barbara City Hall parking lot.
On February 5 at 1:17 a.m. Santa Barbara Police were called out to the parking lot after a fight between strangers landed one man behind bars and the other in the hospital.
"When Officer Rosenberg arrived at the scene of the incident, he found the victim, 26-year-old Alexander Milovich, unconscious and convulsing with a seizure also bleeding profusely from his face," said Sgt. Riley Harwood, Santa Barbara Police Department.
The single punch to the face broke Milovich's nose and caused him to fall backward on the ground. His head struck the cement and fractured his skull. He was taken to Cottage Hospital and admitted to the ICU.
A companion of the victim wrote down the license plate of the white Lexus the suspect was in and called 911. A few blocks away, police stopped the vehicle and found four people in the car.
The witness identified 23-year-old Tyler Lopez as the man who hit Milovich.
Lopez was booked into the Santa Barbara County Jail for felony battery with bail set at $50,000. He posted bail two days later and was released.
Police detectives had to wait to interview Milovich until he was released form the hospital but the information he gave is limited.
"One of the consequences of his injury is that it's made it very difficult for him to recollect many of the circumstances surrounding what happened that evening," said Sgt. Harwood.
Nicolas Ramirez, 31, the driver of the vehicle Lopez was in was found to be driving under the influence and in possession of a small amount of marijuana. He was cited and released.
Also in the vehicle was an unloaded revolver with nine rounds of ammunition and one spent cartridge casing. The items were booked at the police department.
