FILLMORE : Officers Arrest Man, 29, After 7-Hour Standoff

A 29-year-old Fillmore man who barricaded himself in his girlfriend’s apartment and held 50 law enforcement officers at bay for more than seven hours was arrested Monday after officers distracted him with a noise-maker and rushed the building.

Dozens of residents from nearby homes and the tenants in the four-apartment building were evacuated while officers attempted to lure Jeffrey Lloyd from the Sespe Avenue home in Fillmore.

Lloyd, who claimed to be armed, was treated at Ventura County Medical Center for self-inflicted wounds to his forearms before he was taken to Ventura County Jail.

Lloyd barricaded himself after officers attempted to arrest him on a warrant for allegedly failing to appear in court last week on a drunk driving charge. He threatened to kill anyone who tried to take him to jail, Ventura County Sheriff’s Department authorities said.

Lloyd, who was alone at his girlfriend’s apartment, refused to open the door to deputies at 7:45 a.m., said Sgt. James R. Southwick. Although he claimed to be armed, deputies discovered later that his weapons were kitchen knives.

By 8:30 a.m. the sheriff’s special weapons and tactics team had surrounded the small apartment building and evacuated the area. For the next several hours, authorities talked to Lloyd on the phone and through one of the apartment’s windows.

Several times throughout the day, Lloyd, in sunglasses and a white baseball cap, yelled obscenities from the window and asked deputies to shoot him. He told authorities and his girlfriend on the telephone that he did not open the door to the deputies because he did not want to go back to prison.

At 4 p.m., the SWAT team used a device called flash/bang to distract Lloyd while they entered the apartment and arrested him without further struggle, Southwick said.

Lloyd’s mother, Linda Lloyd of Santa Paula, said her son has been in and out of jail since 1980 for various alcohol-related crimes. He had been released from state prison on June 6, she said.

“I’ve tried everything I can to help him, but he continues to drink,” Linda Lloyd said. “I’m crying out for help. Instead of taking him to jail, I wish they would take him to a hospital and treat him.”