No One Hurt as 2 Standoffs End Peacefully; 3 Arrested

In separate incidents Friday, an Irvine woman armed with a handgun and a Fullerton man wielding a shotgun held off police for hours inside their homes before relatives persuaded them to surrender.

No one was injured in either incident, police said.

The 21-year-old Irvine woman barricaded herself in her town house Friday morning, fired two shots that struck no one but held off police for four hours until relatives and friends talked her into surrendering, police said.

Robin Taufer was taken to Irvine police headquarters for evaluation by psychiatrists, according to Lt. Sam Allevato.

She may face charges of firearm violations, Allevato said.

During the incident, police evacuated 10 town houses along Snowberry Street in the Deerfield area of Irvine.

Argued With Roommate

According to Allevato, Taufer had argued with her roommate, Laura Bennington, early Friday morning. After getting to work, Allevato said, Bennington telephoned Taufer, who told her roommate that she was going to shoot herself because she no longer wanted to live. Bennington called Irvine police.

A neighbor told arriving police that she had heard a single shot. Then officers spotted Taufer through a window holding a handgun. A SWAT team was called to the house, then Taufer fired a shot in an officer’s direction, Allevato said.

Police, Taufer’s mother, Joy Taufer, and an unidentified friend tried to talk her into surrendering. At noon Taufer walked out the front door of the house, placed the handgun on the sidewalk and surrendered to officers, Allevato said.

Meanwhile, in Fullerton, an armed standoff between police and a suspect in an auto theft fraud case ended peacefully eight hours after police said the man pointed a shotgun at California Highway Patrol officers trying to serve an arrest warrant.

Persuaded to Surrender

Matei Lusca walked out of his house in the 3900 block of Valencia Drive with his hands above his head after his son persuaded him to surrender.

Lusca was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon and a warrant for auto theft fraud, police said. His wife, Maria, was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault on a police officer. Both were to be booked in Orange County Jail, according to CHP officer Brian E. Duquesnel.

The couple’s twin daughters, Maria and Magdalena, 12, and son, Manuel, 11, remained in the house throughout the standoff. They were to spend the night Friday with relatives, police said.

Two plainclothes CHP officers said that when they tried to serve an arrest warrant at 8 a.m., Maria Lusca attacked one of them with a broom handle.

Duquesnel said the CHP officers “were asked into the house and advised (the family) why they were there.”

It was then, Duquesnel said, that “the man’s wife picked up a two-foot length of broom handle.”

Matei Lusca rushed from the kitchen down a hallway and was pursued by the second officer, who said that Lusca then leveled a shotgun at him.

Both officers ran out of the house., but Officer Tony Golia’s gun was knocked out of his holster when he brushed against a doorway and was left behind.

Friends of the family at the scene said the Luscas had immigrated from Romania 10 years ago and feared police.

“If the cops would leave them alone there would be no problem.” said John Bias, a friend of the family and also a Romanian immigrant. “Something happened to his head. He was a good man.”

One of the Lusca twins, Maria, spoke tearfully about the shotgun her father waved at officers.

“It wasn’t even loaded,” she said. “He just tried to scare them away.”

Dean Lusca, 20, who spoke by telephone with the barricaded family, said his father insisted that the officers had not identified themselves when they entered and that he was protecting his wife, Maria.

Police barricaded streets near the home from 8 a.m. to 4:20 p.m., when Lusca surrendered.