CHULA VISTA, Calif. -- An all-day standoff in a San Diego-area apartment complex that began with a gunman killing his neighbor Thursday ended with the man killing himself after two children and his wife emerged unharmed, police said.
Once the man was alone in the apartment, police heard a gunshot shortly before 5 p.m. They sent in two surveillance robots, then went inside and found the 42-year-old man dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, Chula Vista police Capt. Lon Turner said.
About an hour earlier, two children and the man's wife, who were in the apartment for most of the standoff, emerged safely and were taken away in a police car.
"We all breathed a collective sigh of relief" when the woman and kids came out, Turner said.
Police haven't given the relationship between the adults and the two boys. One of them is 8 years old. The other is younger but his exact age is unclear. The couple, whom police identified only as Michael and Laura, have been married for about a year, police said.
The woman and the boys' departure came after police had resumed cellphone negotiations with the man, who had started talking about surrendering, Turner said.
The standoff began in the morning when the man killed a neighbor and retreated into his apartment, police said. The victim's body remained between two cars outside the complex for hours because it was in the line of fire and too dangerous to retrieve, Turner said.
Authorities helped 56 people evacuate from the 39-unit complex about four hours after the morning shooting when the man temporarily stopped talking to police, Turner said.
A Section on 05/29/2015