– by F. Scott Faulkner
SANTA MARIA, CA — September 11, 2025 — A tense standoff outside Santa Maria stretched on for hours on the morning of September 9th before deputies finally took a machete-wielding man into custody.
According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel Zick, the trouble began around 10:15 a.m., when SBSD deputies responded to reports of “a man inside a home brandishing a machete.” When deputies arrived at the reported residence, they found 48-year-old Nazario Gonzalez of Santa Maria barricaded inside…