Gunman shatters quiet Sunday near Heber

HEBER CITY — Police arrested a man after the Sunday afternoon quiet of an upscale community near here was shattered by multiple shotgun blasts. The man allegedly refused to surrender to law enforcement officers for three hours.

The man was waving a shotgun and yelling and was "not in his right mind" as he fired shot after shot from an A-frame cabin in the Timberlake gated community eight miles east of Heber City, said Tammy Harrison, who lives in the cabin nearest to where the man was firing.

Tammy Harrison and her husband, John, were relaxing in their home Sunday afternoon when they heard shots fired at about 2:30 p.m. from a cabin that sits about 75 feet away from their family's home.

Her 17-year-old son, Zack, was outside lighting smoke bombs with his 4-year-old twin sisters and said he didn't think much of the noises at first, dismissing the sound as that from a nail gun. It wasn't until he heard another gunshot that the family called police.

The Harrisons barricaded themselves in their basement while the gunman continued firing at will. John Harrison said the windows of his house were shaking as round after round exploded from the nearby cabin.

After they spent nearly an hour in the basement, a police SWAT team arrived to evacuate the family.

"They said, 'Go, go, go, go,' " Zack Harrison said of the SWAT team. The family took cover behind cars in the driveway on their way to an armored SWAT van.

After the family was inside the van, the gunman fired more shots. Zack Harrison said he remembers one or two shots hitting the van. The family was ordered to "get on the ground," and SWAT members jumped on top of each family member to protect them from the gunshots, he said.

"It was the scariest thing in my life," Tammy Harrison said.

The man barricaded himself alone inside the cabin for nearly three hours. A Wasatch County dispatcher called the cabin and persuaded him to surrender at approximately 6 p.m., Wasatch County Sheriff's Lt. Jeff Winterton said.

"We believe there may have been some type of alcohol and maybe some type of mental issues," Winterton said.

Mark Bardsley, 50, lives in the Timberlake neighborhood and was being held Sunday night in the Wasatch County Jail, Winterton said.

Tammy Harrison said she believes the man is either a friend or boyfriend of the woman who owns the home. The woman was not inside the home at the time of the shootings, Winterton said.

Police reopened gates to the community at about 6:15 p.m. The Harrisons, however, were unable to return to their home as police were busy investigating.

Authorities from the Wasatch County Sheriff's Office, Heber City Police Department, Summit County Sheriff's Office and Utah Highway Patrol coordinated during the standoff. A medical helicopter on standby touched down at the Timberlakes gate in case medical assistance was needed.

Residents were evacuated from the neighborhood through an alternate route that headed east near a local church camp.

Looking back, Tammy Harrison said she knows her family escaped a potentially deadly situation.

"My kids are always playing in that back yard," she said.

"This just doesn't happen to us," John Harrison added.

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