911 Call Leads to Stakeout, Arrest of an Armed Man in Mission Viejo

An armed Anaheim man who reportedly threatened to kill his former wife was arrested half a block away from her house in Mission Viejo on Sunday night just minutes after police were tipped off by a frantic 911 caller.

Deputies found a loaded handgun in Carl Zywocienski’s pickup truck after his arrest. The 37-year-old shipping clerk was taken into custody without incident and charged with attempted murder.

“This is prevention at its finest,” said an Anaheim police spokesman, Sgt. Joe Vargas. “Somebody was responsible enough to call us, and their efforts may have saved somebody’s life.”

The Anaheim police received the 911 call Sunday at 8:32 p.m. The caller, whose name was not revealed by police, warned that Zywocienski had a loaded handgun and had vowed to kill his former wife and possibly her family, authorities said. Anaheim police sent out a countywide all-points bulletin, and told Orange County sheriff’s deputies in Mission Viejo that Zywocienski was headed their way.

Within minutes, one deputy was parked in front of the former wife’s house on Bolero and two officers were searching the side streets. When Zywocienski turned onto her street, the squad cars converged and boxed him in. The deputies crouched behind their cars, guns drawn, until Zywocienski surrendered.

“We obviously take these calls very seriously. As soon as we got the call, we dispatched the cars,” said Sgt. Roger Neumeister, a Sheriff’s Department investigator based in South County. “Regardless of how the case turns out, I’d rather have the person stopped before they do something.”

Zywocienski apparently had been enraged since last week, when the couple’s 16-year-old son moved back with his mother because of her concerns over Zywocienski’s behavior, relatives said.

Zywocienski and his former wife, whose name is being withheld by The Times, have been engaged in a custody battle over their son since the couple divorced in 1991. She has since remarried.

The court granted sole custody to the mother after hearing testimony about Zywocienski’s alcohol and drug use, problems that led to a drunk driving arrest in 1998, according to court records and his relatives.

Zywocienski was allowed bimonthly visits, but only while supervised by Zywocienski’s mother, who lives in Whittier. He has been petitioning to increase his visitation rights and to reduce his child-support payments, court records show.

In 1992, the boy’s mother asked a judge to bar Zywocienski from even limited visitation after the boy told her his father used drugs in front of him, court records show.

But Zywocienski pleaded with the judge to deny the request: “My son needs a father. I need my son,” he said in a April 1992 letter to the court.

Zywocienski got his wish when his son moved in with him for several months, relatives said. That arrangement ended last week, however, when his former wife found that her son had been skipping school.

Despite their dispute, Zywocienski had apparently never threatened his former wife before Sunday.

“We didn’t realize how serious this was until it escalated to this point,” the woman’s husband said Monday. “My wife is petrified, and I’m afraid for her.” His name is also being withheld by The Times.

The couple’s neighbors were shaken by Sunday’s incident.

One neighbor on the quiet street said he was startled by a police helicopter circling about 9:30 p.m. When he went outside, he saw police squatting behind their car doors and pointing their guns at the truck, with Zywocienski inside.

The deputies ordered Zywocienski to come out of his truck with his hands over his head. When he complied and walked backward toward police, they jumped him and cuffed him, the man said.

“There were a lot of neighbors outside looking out their doors,” said the neighbor, who identified himself only as Dave. “It’s pretty quiet here. Somebody doing 30 mph on our street is a big story.”

Times staff writer Phil Willon contributed to this report.