A Tucson police SWAT officer shot and killed a man Thursday afternoon to end a five-hour standoff at a west-side house.
Inside the house, officers found a 34-year-old woman dead, police said.
The long standoff, which began about 12:30 p.m., forced the security lockdown of nearby Brichta Elementary School and the closure of North Silverbell Road, between West Grant Road and West Speedway.
Police said the incident ended at about 5:30 p.m. when the 46-year-old man appeared at an upstairs window and was shot by a SWAT officer. Information about what prompted the officer to fire at the man was not immediately released.
Officers had sporadic telephone contact with the man throughout the standoff but he appeared irate and irrational, said Lt. Fabian Pacheco, a police spokesman.
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The incident started in a home in the 2000 block of West Saddle Hills Drive, said Sgt. Linda Galindo, a Tucson Police Department spokeswoman.
The man lived in the basement of his parents’ home with his wife. Police said the man’s mother arrived home about 12:30 p.m. to find the door to the house locked. She then heard a gunshot.
The man fired more than 25 shots at police when officers first arrived following a 911 call. No officers were hurt.
When he refused to come out, hostage negotiators and the SWAT team were called in. Attempts by authorities to talk with the man over the phone failed for much of the incident, police said.
At about 4:30 p.m. the man began answering the phone when hostage negotiators called, Pacheco said. He wouldn’t speak to them and would hang up the phone. Police even played a taped message by the man’s family urging him to surrender, Pacheco said.
The long standoff forced the lockdown of nearby Brichta Elementary School. Students there were eventually transported to Tulley Elementary Magnet School, 1701 W. Rio Drive, to be released to their parents or to ride the bus home.
