22-Year-Old Holed Up in Home Commits Suicide

A despondent 22-year-old glass cutter shot himself to death Friday after his family and authorities failed to talk him out of the Portola Hills house where he had barricaded himself for hours.

Paul Gutierrez, who had lived in the semi-secluded neighborhood for the last four months, was found at 12:30 p.m., dead from a single gunshot wound to the head, Orange County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Richard J. Olson said.

Sheriff’s deputies were called by Gutierrez’s two roommates after he brandished a shotgun and threatened to kill himself about 4:30 a.m., said Rick Rhodes, 22, who owns the single-story house that he shared with Gutierrez.

“It got to a point where we were losing control of the situation,” said roommate Brian Leavy, 20. “We didn’t know what to do.”

The roommates took the shotgun, called authorities and then fled. Gutierrez, however, still had a handgun.

The call brought deputies, including a SWAT team, firefighters and paramedics.

About 10 a.m., police, family members and residents heard a single shot.

The SWAT team entered the house at 12:30 p.m. and found Gutierrez dead, Olson said.

Family members said they had telephoned Gutierrez and tried to coax him out of the house.

“I told him (over the telephone) I loved him, and I needed him,” said his mother, Shirley Gutierrez, adding that she had been unable in the past to persuade him to seek counseling and medication for his ongoing fits of depression.

“He kept telling me that nobody loved him.”