Corpus Christi Caller Times Caller.com - Man ends 8-hour standoff

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Monday, January 8, 2001

Man ends 8-hour standoff
Two officers injured during the incident
By Venessa Santos-Garza
Caller-Times
SANDIA - A man described as suffering mental problems allegedly shot two Jim Wells County law enforcement officers Saturday night and then refused to come out of a mobile home for eight hours before surrendering to a swat team, police said.
   One officer was shot in the hand, and the other was shot in the arm, said Corpus Christi Police Chief Pete Alvarez, adding that neither suffered life-threatening injuries. Alvarez said he did not know the officers' names or where they were treated.
   Jim Wells County Sheriff's Department officials could not be reached for comment.
   The standoff began after the 34-year-old man's 83-year-old grandmother called police about 10:30 p.m. Saturday and reported her grandson was behaving irrationally, Alvarez said. The woman, who was not injured, was in a mobile home with the man in a rural area on County Road 366.
   Two officers who responded were hit by pellets from a single shotgun blast from a window of the mobile. When more officers arrived, the man refused to come out, Alvarez said. The Corpus Christi Police Department sent about 15 swat team officers, including hostage negotiators.
   Hostage negotiators talked by telephone with the grandmother, who relayed her grandson's messages to police, Alvarez said. The woman eventually persuaded her grandson to talk to police directly on the phone.
   The man walked out of the mobile home and turned himself in about 7 a.m.
   The man has a history of mental illness and was taken to a mental hospital for psychological evaluation, Alvarez said. Alvarez said the man probably will be taken to jail after a mental evaluation at the hospital.
   Sandia resident Rene Varajas said he saw a lot of police in town Saturday night and was surprised to learn later what had happened.
   "I didn't know what was going on until this morning," said Varajas, who has lived in Sandia for eight years. "It's usually pretty quiet out here."
   But it was the second incident in the past four months where law enforcement officers in Jim Wells County have been shot.
   Two deputies received superficial head wounds from a shotgun blast Sept. 11 during a seven-hour standoff with a 25-year-old man. A Department of Public Safety trooper also was struck in the chin by a shotgun pellet during the standoff.
   The standoff began when Mental Health and Mental Retardation caseworkers tried to serve a mental commitment on the man at his grandmother's house in west Alice.


Staff writer Venessa Santos-Garza can be reached at 886-3752 or by e-mail at santosv@caller.com

| Talk about this story | Next Story | Home |

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[ Printer-friendly version ]
[ Subscribe to newspaper ]

SEND THIS PAGE TO A FRIEND

[an error occurred while processing this directive]