6-hour SWAT standoff in unincorporated El Cajon ends in arrest

A suspect in an alleged domestic violence incident who holed up at a home in unincorporated El Cajon Thursday night was arrested following an hours-long standoff with SWAT, sheriff’s officials said.

The incident began around noon when U.S. Marshals from the agency’s Fugitive Task Force located a 49-year-old man wanted on suspicion of domestic violence at a home on Silverbrook Drive near Collier Way, sheriff’s Lt. Jeff Ford said.

The federal task force obtained an arrest warrant for the wanted man and requested help at the scene from the sheriff’s SWAT team, because investigators believed he would be violent and possibly had weapons inside the house, Ford said.

Around 6 p.m., SWAT deputies contacted the suspect at the home and ordered him to surrender, according to investigators. Deputies said he refused to comply and barricaded himself inside the home along with a woman.

Over the next few hours, the man allegedly punched out several windows of the house — causing him to injure himself — and yelled multiple threats out at deputies, threatening to kill them if they entered the house, Ford said.

At some point, deputies sent a drone inside the home to determine if the woman was being held inside against her will, but the man attacked and broke the device, investigators said.

Deputies then used chemical agents inside the home, forcing the woman to head outside and peacefully surrender, Ford said. Detectives later determined she was not being held against her will inside the house.

She was medically treated at the scene and released.

Further attempts by deputies to de-escalate the situation and bring the man out of the house peacefully failed, Ford said.

Around midnight, investigators decided to end the standoff and sent SWAT deputies with a canine unit into the home, Ford said. The unarmed man allegedly fought back during the confrontation, but he was eventually subdued.

He was taken to a hospital with injuries believed not to be life-threatening.

He was booked into San Diego jail on multiple allegations, including suspicion of domestic violence, criminal threats toward a public officer and felony vandalism.