Deputies Shoot Armed Man After 3-Hour Standoff

A Newbury Park man was shot by sheriff’s deputies after he fired several rounds in an industrial neighborhood Sunday night and later pointed a rifle at officers, authorities said.

Andrew Brennan, 41, whom officials described as mentally disturbed, was shot in the shoulder. He was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, where he is recovering, authorities said.

The incident comes at a time when officer-involved shootings in Ventura County are under the microscope. There have been six by Oxnard Police Department officers this year.

“We think we did this right,” sheriff’s spokesman Eric Nishimoto said Monday, “given the nature of the threat.”

The incident occurred after sheriff’s deputies responded to reports of shots being fired about 6:30 p.m. in the 800 block of Mitchell Road, where Brennan apparently lived in his cabinet-making shop. A SWAT team and a hostage-negotiation team were called in, Nishimoto said.

After talking to the man and to family members, officers determined that Brennan was apparently mentally ill, Nishimoto said.

Deputies evacuated nearby businesses and tried to wait Brennan out, Nishimoto said.

Authorities said Brennan appeared to be firing a rifle randomly and squeezed off 19 or 20 rounds, most of them into the ground. Brennan walked in and out of the building several times, and at about 9:30 he pointed his rifle at one of the deputies, officials said. In response, SWAT officers fired their rifles and a so-called less-than-lethal round, a 37-millimeter rubber projectile called a “baton round,” authorities said.

Brennan was taken immediately to Los Robles, where he remained in good condition Monday evening after surgery on his shoulder, hospital spokeswoman Kris Carraway-Bowman said. He will probably be transferred to Ventura County Medical Center, she said.

The man’s pet Rottweiler, who also lived at the cabinet shop, was impounded by county Animal Control officers.

The Sheriff’s Department has had previous contact with Brennan. On Aug. 26, the man’s father called deputies concerned that his son was suicidal. But Nishimoto said deputies couldn’t confirm mental problems after interviewing Brennan that day and left the scene.

Parents and Therapist Assisted Authorities

“His parents and his therapist were involved in helping decide on a course of action” at the scene Sunday night, said Deputy Eric Buschow. “Before that could be implemented, he came out” with a rifle.

Buschow said deputies are investigating whether the incident could be a case of “suicide by cop,” in which a suspect tries to provoke law enforcement into a deadly confrontation.

On Monday, the Sheriff’s Department searched the cabinet shop and found 19 guns of various types and numerous rounds of ammunition, Buschow said.

Brennan had not been charged with a crime by late Monday, authorities said. The names of the officers involved in the shooting have not been released.

The Sheriff’s Department did the right thing in that it took its time in dealing with the suspect, said Dr. Michael Ferguson, head of the county’s mental health crisis team.

“From what I’ve heard, I don’t hear anything I would be critical of,” he said. “They didn’t rush the situation. They called in hostage negotiators. It sounds like they were pretty deliberate in their approach.”

A critic of police treatment of the mentally ill, Craig Durfey, said he would have preferred the officers use only less-than-lethal means in dealing with Brennan, such as rubber bullets, or a sharpshooter to try to shoot the gun out of his hands.

“I have to be fair with law enforcement,” said Durfey, of Garden Grove, who supports a new state law that requires police officers to receive training in dealing with the mentally ill. “With a gun involved, an officer has himself to protect.”

A man who worked near Brennan’s shop, which had shutters over the door, said the Brennan was considered a recluse. The neighbor, who asked not to be identified, recalled Brennan’s brush with the law in August and said police pinned the man to the ground during that encounter.

“Some people probably thought he was a little too quiet,” the neighbor said. “He was a little out there.”