Man Barricaded in Van Surrenders

A quarrel between a man and his ex-girlfriend Monday morning turned into a six-hour standoff with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department SWAT team, police said.

Gerald Plocich, 46, of Tustin surrendered shortly before 8 a.m. after holding police at bay outside his ex-girlfriend’s apartment in the 15700 block of Tustin Valley Way, said Tustin Police Lt. Frank Semelsberger.

Plocich was arrested by the sheriff’s SWAT team on suspicion of being a felon in possession of a gun. The prior felony conviction was narcotics-related, Semelsberger said.

Semelsberger said the standoff began about 2 a.m. when Plocich, sitting in a van, fired two shots inside his vehicle with a .38-caliber handgun. Tustin police surrounded the van, then turned the scene over to the sheriff’s SWAT team about 4:30 a.m.

Plocich fired a third shot inside the van about 6 a.m., but SWAT team members, who had passed a phone to Plocich, persuaded him to surrender, Semelsberger said.