4 men are slain at auto yard

Four men were shot dead Tuesday afternoon at an auto junkyard in northern Santa Barbara County, apparent victims of a workplace attack, authorities said.

In a wild scene that sent workers and customers fleeing for their lives, police said, the shooter killed the men with a semiautomatic handgun, pausing at one point between rounds to reload. A suspect was later taken into custody.

“There were a lot of customers on the property, and they were running outside,” said Lt. Dan Ast. “It was a pretty chaotic situation.”

Santa Maria police have not stated a motive in the killing, although Police Chief Danny Macagni told reporters that the attack appeared to be a case of “workplace violence.”

Police were called to the scene about 4 p.m., Ast said. A caller reported hearing gunshots coming from the wrecking yard on the edge of town. The caller said the gunman was still inside and shooting.

The first officers on the scene found one body, just outside a white wooden fence surrounding the yard. Inside, at a distance of about 75 feet, another victim was on the ground. A third victim was discovered inside an office, and the fourth was found on the far eastern edge of the property.

At the time, the fourth victim still had a pulse. Paramedics were brought in under armed guard to check on the man, because no gunman had yet been found and police thought he might be hiding.

At one point, officers noticed someone standing in the yard who was not wounded. When he saw that officers were looking at him, he started running, police said.

Officers chased the man over a fence, tackled him and took him into custody, Ast said. They believe he is the only suspect. They have not released the identities of the victims or the gunman, but police said witnesses have identified the man who did the shooting.

The junkyard, Black Road Auto, is on the outskirts of Santa Maria, near Black and West Stowell roads.

Homicides are rare in Santa Maria, which is in a largely agricultural area on California’s Central Coast. In 2006, there were two homicides in the city of about 85,000 people; in 2005, there were three.

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catherine.saillant@latimes.com

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Times staff writer Rong-Gong Lin II contributed to this report.