A California police chief is defending the decision to distribute "fake news" to the media during the investigation in multiple gang-involved murders.
Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin said that the unusual tactic to announce nonfactual information was "an exceptionally rare event" and that he wouldn't hesitate to do the same thing in the future to protect lives, according to Noozhawk.
Issued on Feb. 12, a fake news release announced the arrests of Jose Marino Melendez and Jose Santos Melendez -- cousins of Modesto Melendez, who was fatally shot in a car in May 2015. Police claimed that the arrests followed a Feb. 9 call from a business and involved attempted identity fraud.
The fake news release stated that arrested the men and Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of them.
It was revealed last week -- as the case returned to Superior Court -- that police took the men into custody and wanted word to spread to the suspects targeting them.
On March 3, officials announced Operation Matador with the arrest of 15 people for conspiracy to commit murder and one suspect outstanding. The fake media release was not mentioned during the news conference. This summer, a Santa Barbara County criminal grand jury indicted 17 people -- several of which faced 10 counts of first-degree murder among 50 felony counts.
"This was an incredible exception," Martin told Noozhawk. "We could not lose the case and all of the time we put into it if they (the suspects) thought for just a moment that we snatched them off the street to protect them."
Martin said he authorized the news release, which came as detectives were investigating 21 killings between December 2014 and January 2016.
