Man Killed in Standoff Described as SWAT Expert

ANAHEIM — A 50-year-old New Mexico man who died during a standoff with police at an Anaheim motel was a self-taught expert of SWAT tactics with an arsenal of weapons, which probably emboldened him to engage officers in a 14-hour war game, investigators said Monday.

The Albuquerque resident, whose name was being withheld by police, repeatedly challenged officers to come inside his second-story motel room during Sunday’s daylong standoff and complimented the SWAT team’s use of an armored vehicle at the scene.

“He wasn’t ranting and raving, he was pretty much calm, dangerously calm,” said Lt. David Severson, the department’s SWAT commander. “Everything he said indicated he wanted to fight. He was ready to fight. The stuff he had with him was unbelievable, right from a survivalist’s checklist.”

Investigators seized a pile of weapons from the Calico Motel room late Sunday, including 25 live hand grenades, two homemade pipe bombs, two handguns, three rifles and more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition. Several grenades had been poised to go off upon entrance into the room. Police believe the man died when one of his explosive devices detonated in his hand as he was taunting authorities.

“The last thing he said to us before we heard that bang was, ‘If you want me, it’s up to you to come and get me,’ ” Severson said. “We don’t think he meant for it to go off.”

The standoff began at 6:30 a.m. Sunday when the gunman opened fire outside a Circle K convenience store, and store clerk Jonathan Ed Sumey, 35, of Anaheim, was struck in the head by a bullet fragment, said Sgt. Joe Vargas, a police spokesman.