Escondido Man Arrested After 6-Hour Siege

A 26-year-old Escondido man who claimed he was shooting at rats surrendered to police and San Diego County sheriff’s deputies Friday morning after a six-hour standoff.

James Arthur Eberly had allegedly shattered the pre-dawn quiet of his residential neighborhood by firing his 12-gauge shotgun eight times.

Police had surrounded Eberly’s home a week earlier after a similar incident when he also claimed he was shooting at rats, but he was not held at the time due to lack of evidence.

After Friday morning’s incident, Eberly was taken to the Hillcrest mental hospital after questioning by Escondido detectives, Police Lt. Earl Callander said.

He was arrested on five misdemeanor counts of disturbing the peace, discharging a firearm within the city limits and delaying police officers, Callander said.

Pre-dawn Shots Fired

Friday’s incident in the 900 block of North Midway Drive began about 4:30 a.m. after neighbors called police to report the sound of gunfire.

“I was awake, getting ready to go to work, when I heard two shots and then three more,” said Charles Thomas, who lives next door to Eberly. “I went outside and he came out. I had a few choice words to say to him and then he fired three more shots,” as he stood just out of Thomas’ view, Thomas said.

Thomas was one of several neighbors who then called police.

Callander said Eberly’s 90-year-old grandmother, Alta Eberly, left the house in her bathrobe just after police arrived and surrounded it. The SWAT team surrounded the home at dawn, as Escondido police cordoned off the area and evacuated scores of neighbors to a nearby school.

Escondido police negotiator Sgt. John Houchin said he tried unsuccessfully for about 4 1/2 hours to reach Eberly by telephone, but the ringing went unanswered. Police also tried to get Eberly’s attention by bullhorn, but were unsuccessful.

Finally, about 10 a.m., Eberly answered the phone.

“He sounded like a man who just woke up,” Houchin said. “I told him who I was and I think he remembered me from back in my patrol days when he was a kid hanging out on Valley Parkway.”

Houchin said he persuaded Eberly to walk out peacefully, but when Eberly walked to his front door and saw the tires of his Cadillac sedan punctured by SWAT officers using a crossbow to prevent his escape by car, Eberly went back inside, apparently upset.

“We got back on the phone and we did some calming down,” Houchin said. “He seemed to be coherent. His answers were rational.”

Callander said Eberly apparently was unemployed and lived with his grandmother. Thomas described Eberly as “a loner” who worked constantly on his car or spent time in his garage.

Thomas said he was concerned for the safety of his wife and two children because of the repeat incidents of Eberly shooting at phantom rats, and the inability of police to act on it last week.

Lack of Evidence

Eberly was not held after last week’s incident because, aside from neighbors saying they heard shots fired, no weapon was evident and there were no actual eyewitnesses to the incident even though two shell casings were found, Callander said. Eberly met with police after a 90-minute standoff last week, but said his house had been burglarized during the interim and he no longer had his shotgun.

Police lacked the evidence to get a court order to search the house for a weapon last week, Callander said.

Last year, Eberly was arrested and convicted for assault on a police officer after he was pulled over by police on suspicion of drunk driving.

In another SWAT action in Escondido in December Robert Gary Taschner was fatally shot in a police fusillade after holing up for 13 hours and slaying a deputy sheriff.

In that incident, Taschner had been previously arrested for possession of illegal weapons and police confiscated the man’s cache of weapons. Taschner had purchased another weapon the day before his shoot-out with police.

During Friday’s incident, San Diego Union-Tribune photographer Bob Ivins was cited and later released by Escondido police for interfering with a police officer while photographing Eberly’s arrest.

That incident highlighted news photographers’ frustration at being kept more than a block away from Eberly’s home--too far away to clearly witness and photograph the arrest when Eberly finally walked out of his home.