Man Surrenders After Threatening Suicide
After a five-hour standoff, Los Angeles police arrested a man Tuesday and threatened to kill himself rather than be arrested on suspicion of using a stolen credit card.
Mark Devault, 20, of Chula Vista surrendered peacefully about 1:15 a.m. in his hotel room in the 14th floor of the Universal Sheraton after talking with a police crisis negotiation team, said Lt. Pat Conmay.
Police were called by hotel officials who discovered that the credit card Devault used to rent the room had been reported stolen after a burglary in Chula Vista, Conmay said.
When officers arrived to question Devault, they found him in his room holding a .22-caliber handgun to his temple and threatening to kill himself unless police left the room, Conmay said.
In the hotel parking lot, police found a car that they said was reported stolen during the same Chula Vista robbery as the credit card. Devault was also a suspect in other Chula Vista burglaries, police said.
Devault was undergoing psychiatric evaluation at the Van Nuys Jail, police said.
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