Police Arrest Barricaded Gunman as He Sleeps : Standoff: Anaheim officers were held off 19 hours after a man commandeered apartment containing weapons that he fired repeatedly.

Police, held at bay for 19 hours by a heavily armed man who sprayed occasional volleys of gunfire at them, captured the man Sunday afternoon after he fell asleep inside an apartment that he had seized and barricaded, authorities said.

The quiet capture of Brian Main, described as a transient from Huntington Beach, contrasted with the tense, nearly daylong standoff for about 40 police officers and dozens of residents who had been evacuated from their homes Saturday night and Sunday morning.

A special-weapons team had pelted the apartment with more than 30 rounds of tear gas during the siege in an attempt to force the gunman from his enclave. Yet even as onlookers dozens of yards away from the scene coughed and sneezed from the spreading gas, the suspect held his ground and refused even to open discussions with police negotiators.

Finally, about 5 p.m., after police determined the man had fallen asleep inside the Villa Rio Vista Apartments at 175 S. Rio Vista St., they simply walked in and arrested him without incident, authorities said.

He appeared groggy but uninjured, police said. He was arrested on suspicion of aggravated assault against a police officer, discharging a firearm at an inhabited dwelling and violation of parole, and was taken to Western Medical Center-Anaheim for observation before being booked into the Anaheim city jail.

By coincidence, the apartment that the suspect had seized contained a cache of weapons--including several pistols, shotguns, a nine-millimeter rifle and a suitcase filled with ammunition, all owned by two middle-aged men who live there, police and neighbors said.

The suspect apparently used at least one of the weapons to open fire on police five times through the day--usually after he was hit with a new round of tear gas. But no police officers were reported injured during the siege, said city spokeswoman Brenda Parker.

Several hundred onlookers, including some evacuated from their homes during the standoff, cheered and hooted as the suspect was carried from the 286-unit building on a stretcher and taken to the hospital.

The altercation began just before 10 p.m. Saturday, authorities said, when several residents spotted a man who appeared to be prowling around cars and houses in the neighborhood.

Chuck Linsmeier, 31, a mechanic, who said he had begun doing hourly patrols of the parking lot at the complex because of a recent spate of car thefts, noticed a nervous-looking man who was standing near the pool at the apartment complex.

Linsmeier said the man told him: “Don’t worry about me--we’re playing hide-and-go-seek.” Linsmeier said he then went back to his apartment to get a dart gun and, within about five minutes, heard his next-door neighbor pounding on the door, saying he had been attacked by a man who threatened to “kidnap” him.

According to Linsmeier’s account, the neighbor said the intruder kicked down his front door and struck him with a piece of wood from the door. The two men then scuffled. The neighbor poked the intruder in the eye and then fled next door to call the police, Linsmeier said.

Police arrived within a few minutes, but the suspect had already begun moving a mattress and furniture to barricade himself inside the apartment.

Authorities evacuated residents from between 20 and 40 nearby apartments in the complex that were considered to be in the “danger zone,” and Red Cross officials set up a temporary shelter at a nearby school Sunday morning.

One resident, M.J. Everett, said she left her home across the hall from the suspect after police told her they needed to use the apartment above hers to launch tear gas canisters. But many residents--some with children--stayed at the scene through what proved a difficult night.

“You kept getting woken up by the gunfire,” said resident Don Prosser, 36.

Said Linsmeier, an ex-Marine who also stayed on the scene through the night as police used his apartment as a command post: “It’s been a little Vietnam in there.”

One asthmatic resident who had remained in her apartment was taken to Anaheim Memorial Hospital in late morning after she complained of breathing problems. Medics on the scene suggested the problems were brought on by stress.

But others were less bothered.

Maynard Epperson, 21, said that while he could hear the rounds of gunfire and tear gas inside his nearby apartment, the biggest bother was that he couldn’t do his laundry and had to wear non-uniform pants to his job as a waiter.

“It kind of threw off my day a little bit,” Epperson said.

Through the early morning hours, residents who remained behind said they could hear police yelling at the suspect through bullhorns, asking “Can we get you something?” and telling him that they wanted to “put a stop to this so that no one gets hurt.”

But Main didn’t want to talk, police said. He would give little more than his name when police telephoned into the apartment, and negotiators didn’t fare much better even after bringing his roommate onto the scene to help out, officials said.

A rare sign of stirring, said resident Dianna Davis, 36, came in the early morning after a new round of tear gas, when the suspect yelled: “My eyes are burning and I can’t see!”

Police said they were surprised that the suspect was able to withstand as much tear gas as he did--more than 30 canisters, shot into the apartment on eight occasions. The blasts ripped holes in a table, a sliding glass window and other parts of the apartment.

“It is surprising. Tear gas is a very powerful substance,” Parker said as the standoff wore into the afternoon.

“There’s no explanation why,” said Anaheim Police Officer Steve Stempniak. “There could be a lot of reasons--his medical history, his mental condition, maybe he’s under the effect of a narcotic.”

Despite the weaponry inside the apartment, the suspect apparently had no access to a gas mask or other means of fending off the tear gas, authorities said. Police said it did appear, however, that he had thrown a computer through a window--perhaps to get more air.

Police would say little during the course of the standoff about the tactics they employed, but Sgt. Thomas Lehman said the strategy was straightforward: “Basically, we do the same thing as in Waco (Texas, where cult leader David Koresh has held federal agents at bay since Feb. 28). Wait them out. Time is on our side.”

Times staff writers Lily Dizon and Mark Landsbaum and correspondent Terry Spencer contributed to this report.

* NEIGHBORS REACT: It was a long 19 hours for residents of Villa Rio Vista apartment complex. B4