Officer Wounded as Standoff Ends; Navy Doctor Held

An armed and despondent Navy doctor shot and wounded a San Diego police officer early Friday as she was being apprehended by a SWAT team that burst into her apartment, ending a 10-hour standoff in which a Navy psychiatrist was also wounded, officials said.

Lt. Cmdr. Ann Dalrymple, 37, was being held for observation at the Navy Hospital in Balboa Park on Friday afternoon as FBI agents prepared reports for the U.S. attorney’s office. Yet to be decided was whether she should be charged with any federal criminal violations or be turned over to the Navy for prosecution.

Wounded in the 2:15 a.m. apprehension was Officer Edward M. Verduzco. Officials said Verduzco, 31, was shot in the left knee as the SWAT group attempted to pull Dalrymple out of the bathroom of her second-floor apartment in the bachelors’ officers quarters near the commissary at the 32nd Street Naval Station. He was listed in good condition Friday at Mercy Hospital.

Navy Asks Assistance

The San Diego police Special Weapons and Tactics team had been invited in by the Navy to assist in the case.

The SWAT team, called to the scene after Dalrymple stopped talking to Navy negotiators, fired several rounds of tear gas before bursting into the apartment. She had turned the fan on in the room to blow out the tear gas fumes and had locked herself into the bathroom. As SWAT team members broke through the bathroom door, Verduzco was shot in the knee, according to Chief Warrant Officer R. W. Caudill.

Officials said the standoff began Thursday afternoon when Dalrymple, upset with losing her hospital residency and worried about problems with her administrative job at the station’s medical clinic, was to have been escorted to the Navy Hospital for evaluation.

Navy psychiatrist James T. Fowler III was shot in the index finger of his left hand when he and two other officers, using a passkey, attempted to enter her apartment.

Navy officials, including those at the scene and others contacted Friday afternoon, indicated that Dalrymple was despondent since being “de-credentialed” from her neurosurgery residency at the UC San Diego Medical Center.

Mistreatment Alleged

Members of her family in Pensacola, Fla., said in telephone interviews that Dalrymple had been mistreated for several years by the Navy and had been frightened by warnings that she would be confined to a Navy brig because of alleged attitude problems.

“She’s been fighting them all these years,” said her sister, Jeanie Regimbal. “They felt she was not a good doctor. They wouldn’t let her perform certain procedures.”

Baker, the base spokesman, declined to discuss in detail the circumstances leading up to the confrontation and shootings. “We’re not going to go beyond the facts on this, unless or until formal charges are filed,” he said. “We need to make that determination. Then we can go into more detail.”