HUNTINGTON BEACH : Tear Gas Used to End Siege of Apartment

After refusing to come out during a five-hour police siege early Monday, a 41-year-old man ultimately surrendered to police following a tear-gas assault on the blood-spattered apartment in which he had locked himself.

Police evacuated about 30 residents of the 198-unit Villa Yorba Apartments at Villa Yorba and San Angelo drives, after finding a blood-drenched hallway with messages written in blood on the wall. Police said they initially feared that a female resident in one apartment had been murdered and that the suspect was still inside.

“Our worst-case scenario,” Sgt. Lloyd Edwards said, “was that the woman was dead inside that apartment with her former boyfriend.”

Later police found that the man was alone. He came out after police lobbed two tear-gas cannisters into the third-floor apartment.

The suspect, identified as Rudolph Sandoval of Huntington Beach, had deliberately cut himself with broken glass and written the bloody messages on the wall because he was despondent over breaking up with his girlfriend, police said. He was taken to a hospital for treatment of cuts on his hands, arms and feet and also a psychiatric examination, officers said. He may later be booked on suspicion of interfering with police and resisting arrest, police said.

Sandoval had locked himself in his former girlfriend’s apartment, Edwards said, after she had left during a dispute sometime Sunday night. The woman, identified as Sharon Christenson, 32, was not harmed.

Police said a sister of Christenson’s called them at 4:43 a.m. Monday and urged them to check Christenson’s apartment. Edwards said the sister, who was not identified, feared that Christenson might be in danger.

When officers arrived at 5 a.m. Monday to check on Christenson, they found the hallway to her apartment splattered with blood.

On a wall written in blood was: “SHARON, RUDOLPH--ONE TOGETHER--DIE--NEVER PART.”

Officers determined that a man was inside the locked apartment but did not know if he was armed.

Sandoval at first talked to officers on the telephone but then hung up on calls, still refusing to come out, Edwards said.

Christenson’s fate remained in doubt until 9:30 a.m, when she walked up to the blockaded area around the apartment complex.

Christenson saw the police and put her hands to her mouth in alarm. “Don’t worry, your son’s OK,” a neighbor yelled.

Police said that Christenson later told them that she had had an argument with Sandoval on Sunday night and had left her apartment while he was still there. She then went to an all-night coffee shop with a friend, police said.

Police fired tear-gas into the apartment shortly after she arrived. Sandoval emerged a few minutes later and surrendered to police without incident.

Edwards said Sandoval had no weapon but that he had “trashed up” the apartment and had dripped blood from his wounds throughout the dwelling.