SWAT deputy fatally shoots armed man threatening woman in standoff, Sacramento sheriff says
A SWAT team member on Monday shot to death a man with a gun threatening a domestic violence victim and pointing the weapon at her inside a North Highlands home, sheriff’s officials said.
The fatal shooting occurred shortly before 1:30 p.m. at the 4100 block of Lund Court home after law enforcement tried for more than four hours to speak to the armed man, said Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.
Sheriff’s deputies communicated with the injured woman through her 911 call to dispatchers, and she told them what was going on inside the home throughout the ordeal. Gandhi said the man inside the home refused to speak to deputies, which limited their abilities to negotiate a peaceful surrender.
The incident was initially reported a call for medical help about 9 a.m. at the home, located in a residential neighborhood just south of Elkhorn Boulevard in North Highlands. Authorities arrived at the home and could see the injured woman, before a man went to the opened door and closed it, Gandhi said.
The woman was in a dating relationship with the man, and the couple lived together in the home. Nobody else was inside the home during Monday’s standoff, authorities said. Sheriff’s officials evacuated some nearby homes as a precaution.
Through the injured woman inside the home, deputies learned the suspect was armed with access to multiple guns, the sheriff’s spokesman said.
The woman suffered a hip injury during the reported domestic violence incident at the home. Gandhi said it wasn’t clear yet whether the woman had been hit or pushed to the ground, but she wasn’t able to walk because of the hip injury.
The Sheriff’s Office called for its SWAT team and crisis negotiators to respond to the Lund Court standoff, along with with armored vehicles and aerial drones. Sheriff’s officials continued to speak to the injured woman inside the home, but the man refused to speak to them.
A sheriff’s aerial drone got to close to the home and with its camera captured a view of what was going on inside. Through the drone camera, deputies at the scene spotted the armed man though an opened entry way.
“The suspect came armed with a gun in his hand, pointed it toward the victim, made threats toward her,” Gandhi said. “Luckily, we had our SED (SWAT) deputies pointed at him and were able to shoot him once.”
The sheriff’s spokesman said only one SWAT team member fired a gun at the armed man; only one gunshot was fired. The deputies never entered the home, Gandhi said, the deputy fired from outside at the man who was barricaded inside a bedroom. The man was pronounced dead at the scene.
Gandhi said the woman injured in the domestic violence incident suffered minor injuries and was hospitalized. No other injuries were reported.
Gandhi said it appeared the armed man never fired a gun throughout the standoff. He said “lethal force is absolutely the last resort every time” deputies encounter an armed suspect and that sheriff’s deputies would have used some other method to disarm him or get that victim to safety if they had those options.
“Our No. 1 option is always have a peaceful surrender, have that person come out unarmed, get handcuffs to deal with it,” Gandhi said. “Obviously, this didn’t go that way. Deputies feared for that victim’s life and had to take action.”
