Suicide Threat Postpones Golf Tournament
A Laguna Niguel golf tournament was halted early Monday as police surrounded an apartment overlooking the El Niguel Country Club where a man had holed himself up threatening suicide.
“We’re just basically waiting him out,” Steven Doan, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriffs Department, said regarding Charles Lang, who appeared several times on the balcony of the apartment on the 31500 block of East Nine Drive pointing a semiautomatic handgun at his chest.
Lang, 37, was believed to be distraught over his recent breakup with a boyfriend. Police became suspicious when the boyfriend--who lives in another state--received e-mail pictures of Lang with a gun and phoned the Sheriff’s Department about 9 a.m. Monday morning.
“He’s emotionally distraught over this relationship,” Doan said. “The threats are all directed at himself. [Police] have spoken to him via telephone, but he doesn’t want to come out of his residence.”
The Sheriff’s Department evacuated several nearby condos and shut down a portion of the golf course--and the golf tournament in progress there--as a safety precaution during negotiations.
Sheriff’s deputies said they believed that Lang was alone in the apartment.
The standoff continued late Monday.
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