Update 3 p.m. March 22, 2014, with more details on standoff and the suspect’s behavior.
A man who claimed to be armed was arrested late Friday after holding a SWAT team and hostage negotiators at bay for nearly three hours in Chula Vista.
The suspect, David Herdrich, 52, allegedly used furniture and household items to barricade doors and windows during the incident, in an apartment complex on the 300 block of Roosevelt Street, a Chula Vista Police Department statement said.
Police had been called to the complex at 8:10 p.m. Friday after neighbors heard a couple arguing.
The woman was yelling “don’t hurt me, don’t hurt me, don’t kill me” when officers arrived, which prompted them to summon a SWAT team and crisis negotiators and evacuate neighboring units, police said.
Police said Herdrich did not respond to phone calls or the officers’ commands, but the woman was released from the apartment at 10 p.m. and was apparently unharmed. She told police that Herdrich had several guns and explosives, including a hand grenade, inside.
Police said Herdrich walked out of the apartment and toward officers shortly before 11 p.m., yelled that he had a rifle without showing it, then headed back inside.
He emerged again a few minutes later and quickly walked toward officers. They zapped him with a stun gun, police said.
Herdrich allegedly refused to follow the officers’ orders and physically resisted while being handcuffed. As he was arrested he told officers that the woman’s claims were false and that he had a toy gun, police said.
A search of the residence turned up no explosives or weapons – only a squirt gun.
Herdrich sustained a minor cut to his head while being arrested and was taken to a hospital to be evaluated before being booked. The woman was evaluated and questioned about the events that transpired inside the apartment, police said.
Police said the victim had a valid restraining order against him, which named the woman as the protected person. He also had a misdemeanor warrant for domestic violence-related vandalism.
On Thursday night, paramedics were summoned when Herdrich had called police to the same residence to report a female companion had overdosed. The woman was attended to by paramedics and no police action was taken, according to police.
— City News Service
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