6-hour SWAT standoff in Clairemont ends in arrest

A six-hour SWAT standoff in Clairemont Thursday ended with the arrest of a woman suspected of firing shots at a neighbor.

One round went through the victim’s front door, missing her and her children, police said.

“We had a very close call this morning, but thankfully no one was hurt,” San Diego police Lt. Scott Wahl said.

The 35-year-old woman was taken into custody peacefully about 2 p.m.

The shooter was upset because police had gone to her Beadnell Way apartment about 1 a.m. and issued her a warning for a noise complaint, Wahl said.

Police then got a 911 call shortly after 5 a.m. from a woman saying her neighbor just shot at her and into her apartment. A round went through the front door and an interior door and lodged in the bathroom, Wahl said.

The woman with a handgun had also threatened a male resident, Wahl said.

Officers went to the complex on the south side of Beadnell near Mount Abernathy Avenue. They began evacuating neighbors as a safety precaution but had the victim and her two children hide inside her apartment. Wahl said it was too dangerous to try to get them out.

A full SWAT team was called in about 8 a.m. Police started closing down roads, including Balboa Avenue between Mount Abernathy and Cannington Drive.

A preschool across Balboa Avenue had children stay indoors while the SWAT operation continued.

Several members of the Metro Arson Strike Team bomb squad also were sent to the incident. A spokesman said they were there in a support role for the police action.

Wahl said negotiators talked to the suspected shooter over the course of several hours, trying to persuade her to surrender peacefully.

At one point, she showed up in a window naked and yelled at the officers. She also told them they weren’t going to get into her apartment without a warrant.

She finally agreed to come out and was taken into custody a little before 2 p.m. She faces felony charges including assault with a deadly weapon, shooting at an inhabited home and making threats, Wahl said.