Motel Gunman Was Ready for War Game With Police

A 50-year-old New Mexico man who died during a standoff with police at an Anaheim motel was a self-taught expert on SWAT team tactics with an arsenal of weapons, which likely emboldened him to engage officers in a 14-hour war game, investigators said Monday.

The Albuquerque resident, whose name was still being withheld by police, repeatedly challenged officers to come inside his second-story motel room during Sunday’s daylong standoff, and he complimented the SWAT team for its use of an armored vehicle deployed at the scene.

“He wasn’t ranting and raving, he was pretty much calm, dangerously calm,” said Lt. David Severson, the department’s SWAT team commander. “Everything he said indicated he wanted to fight. He was ready to fight. The stuff he had with him was unbelievable, right from a survivalist’s checklist.”

Investigators seized a pile of weapons from the Calico Motel room late Sunday, including 25 live hand grenades, two homemade pipe bombs, two handguns, three rifles and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Several grenades were being rigged to explode upon entrance into the room, and police believe the man died when one of his own explosive devices detonated in his hand just as he was taunting authorities.

“The last thing he said to us before we heard that bang was ‘If you want me, it’s up to you to come and get me,’ ” Severson said. “We don’t think he meant for it to go off. It was probably an accident. We think he was settling in for the long haul.”

The standoff began at 6:30 a.m. Sunday when the gunman opened fire outside a Circle K convenience store, and a clerk, Jonathan Ed Sumey, 35, of Anaheim, was struck in the head by a bullet fragment, said Sgt. Joe Vargas, a police spokesman.

Witnesses said the man was angry with Sumey for refusing to sell him beer after 2 a.m., but police said Monday that they had not confirmed a motive for the attack.

Sumey, who has worked the overnight shift at the convenience store for five years, was upgraded from critical to serious condition at UCI Medical Center in Orange, a hospital spokeswoman said Monday.

“He has a lot of people pulling for him,” said store manager Subhash Chander, pointing to a wad of bills in a collection jar with Sumey’s name on it. “Our customers keep asking about him.”

After the shooting, police said, the gunman returned to his nearby room and barricaded himself inside. A lone SWAT team sergeant entered the room at 8:20 p.m., after a robot that peered through a front window and a fiber-optic camera both showed the man motionless on the floor.

To see if the gunman was still alive, the sergeant had to climb over a dresser and night stand that had been placed against the window and door. Only later did police find the grenades, apparently intended for a booby-trap.

Throughout the day, the gunman shouted occasionally at the 50 officers outside and at one point requested to speak to an Israeli diplomat, police said. But for the most part the man remained coherent and in control--behavior not normally demonstrated in standoff situations, police said.

“He tested all of our abilities,” Severson said of the gunman, who also used a gas mask. “He had a real intimate knowledge of SWAT tactics and was able to use those tactics against us. It was extremely dangerous.”

The gunman’s counter-strategy including responding with an explosion of his own when SWAT members lobbed gas canisters inside, Severson said. The tactic is commonly referred to as “gas and go,” with police rushing inside immediately after the canister is thrown, he said. The explosion inside, however, kept authorities at bay.

Most of the dozen or so standoff situations handled by the city’s SWAT team each year end peacefully with the suspect’s surrender, police said. Others conclude when the suspect commits suicide. Severson said that nearly all standoffs are sparked either by domestic disputes or when a suspect commits a crime that “goes sideways.” It is rare to find a suspect so eager to fight, he said.

Using the name that the gunman used when he checked in to the motel room a week ago, police determined he was from Albuquerque and had a military background.

When New Mexico authorities searched the man’s home Sunday, they found the front and rear doors rigged to electrocute anyone who entered, Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Department officials said.

“Our investigators had to remove an air conditioning unit from the wall to gain entry,” said Ronni Sparks, a sheriff’s spokeswoman. “He had quite a collection of military books and manuals on SWAT tactics inside.”