Standoff ends peacefully after lots of gunfire

A tense, four-hour standoff between police and a suicidal man with a gun barricaded in his Syracuse home ended peacefully about 2 a.m. Saturday.

The man, whose identity has not been released, was experiencing problems in his marriage and had been drinking, according to Syracuse Police Lt. Tracy Jensen.

Concerned friends stopped by the man's single-family home in the area of 4000 West and 700 South to check on him, and the man answered the door with a .22-caliber handgun, police said. The man fired the gun into the floor several times before the friends left, Jensen said.

Syracuse police were called about 10 p.m. Friday and quickly cordoned off the residential area. They were joined by SWAT teams from the Davis County Sheriff's Office and the Salt Lake City Police Department. In all, about 30 law enforcement officials took part in handling the situation.

"We tried to get him to talk to us several times," Jensen said. "He said he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory, and he was hoping we would shoot him."

The man came out of the house twice, firing his gun repeatedly, causing property damage to a few nearby houses and cars. Jensen estimates the man fired the gun 30 to 40 times during the standoff.

The man also tried to leave the home in his car, but law enforcement officials erected spikes that flattened his tires.

"Around 2 a.m., he decided to surrender," Jensen said. "We took him to McKay-Dee Hospital to see if we could get him some mental help."

The man, who is in his mid-20s, has a wife and children, but they were not in the house at the time, police said.

Jensen said police were particularly concerned about the man's neighbors and evacuated some people from their homes.

"We had the neighborhood shut down, and we had traffic patrol in the area," he said. "Our main concern was the officers, the perimeter and making sure we kept him confined so if anything did happen he only hurt himself."

In the end, law enforcement officials were pleased the episode ended without bloodshed.

"Several times, it could have ended a lot sooner, but obviously we want to avoid that," Jensen said. "Suicide by cop is the last thing we want to have happen. We're very fortunate it ended the way it did."

e-mail: lindat@desnews.com