Friend of Man Who Killed Deputy Held After Threatening Officers

A friend of a man who killed a sheriff’s deputy during a weekend siege kept officers at bay with a hunting rifle during a standoff that ended late Thursday night after a SWAT team fired tear gas and arrested the man.

Friends said the man, Sandy Summers, 37, was an unemployed car salesman and may have been upset by last Saturday’s incident involving his friend, Robert Gary Taschner, who was killed by gunfire from deputies outside his Escondido home as he ran into the street firing an AK-47 assault rifle.

Summers held SWAT officers at bay for more than seven hours, until tear gas was fired and he emerged and was taken into custody, Police Sgt. Anne O’Dell said.

Deputy Slain in Siege

During Taschner’s rampage on Saturday, he shot and killed Deputy Lonnie Brewer. Two other deputies suffered minor wounds.

A friend of Summers’, George Moore, 35, was brought to the scene Thursday to try to reason with Summers who, Moore said, might be upset over Taschner’s death.

Neighbors added that Summers’ wife of 14 years, Dee Dee, had left him this week.

Thursday’s incident began when neighbors reported that a man was running around his front lawn threatening residents with a bow and arrow.

‘Listen, I Need Help’

“The subject’s father also called,” O’Dell said. “The father said his son had been acting argumentative and irrational.”

The younger Summers put a huge cardboard sign on the lawn that declared, “Listen, I need help,” in spray painted black letters and placed a picture of his mother, who died last summer, by the sign.

When officers arrived at 2 p.m., Summers was in his home and refused to come out, O’Dell said.

SWAT officers shot and killed Summers’ Rotweiler dog when Summers let it out of the house and the animal charged toward them, O’Dell added. During one phone conversation with police, Summers said, “He wanted to be like Bosco, his dog, and his dog’s dead,” O’Dell said.