LOCAL : Armed Man Surrenders After 17-Hour Standoff

A 17-hour standoff between sheriff’s deputies and an armed man barricaded in his Laguna Hills apartment ended peacefully today when the man surrendered.

Lt. Richard J. Olson said the man, who was not identified, surrendered at 11:58 a.m. after a tense night and day of talks with crisis negotiators.

The 42-year-old man, apparently suicidal because of marital problems and job difficulties, holed himself up in his apartment about 7 p.m. Monday and occasionally walked out on the balcony and fired shots into the air. By mid-morning, he had fired more than 30 shots from the Pinebrook Apartments near the Laguna Hills mall.

Sheriff’s deputies evacuated several apartments and shut down nearby stores.

Olson said the man had asked crisis negotiators: “What’s it going to take to make the deputies shoot me?”

Some of the stray bullets struck parked cars, a nearby office building and stores in the Oak Brook Village Shopping Center, next to the apartment complex. No injuries were reported.

“He comes out (on his patio) periodically and fires off a round in any direction he decides to shoot,” Olson said before the man was taken into custody. “The stray bullets are landing near the stores, and we don’t want to run the risk of anyone being hit.”

Olson said deputies fired no shots, but two SWAT teams were called to the scene in case they were needed.

The man was believed to have been armed with two handguns, including a .357 magnum, and about 200 rounds of ammunition, sheriff’s deputies and neighbors said.

Olson said the standoff began when the man telephoned the Sheriff’s Department saying he wanted to kill himself because he was depressed over marital problems and the loss of his job.

Sheriff’s deputies and a SWAT term cordoned off the area and evacuated residents from the two-story apartment complex at the corner of Los Alisos Boulevard and Avenida de la Carlota.