MORGAN HILL
– A 34-year-old Morgan Hill man, apparently despondent from
dealing with the effects of chemotherapy for the treatment of
lupus, fired a shotgun inside his house Tuesday and threatened
suicide while police talked to him over the phone.
MORGAN HILL – A 34-year-old Morgan Hill man, apparently despondent from dealing with the effects of chemotherapy for the treatment of lupus, fired a shotgun inside his house Tuesday and threatened suicide while police talked to him over the phone.
It turned out, however, that Michael Morales left his home before police arrived outside, a fact they did not know initially as they talked to him over his cellular phone.
The California Highway Patrol tried to pull Morales over at about 9 p.m. on U.S. 101 near Tennant Avenue, thinking he was a drunk driver. He led officers on a vehicle chase, then a foot chase, but they arrested him on Murphy Avenue near East Dunne Avenue.
The incident began more than four hours earlier, when Morales’ mother called police to say her son had fired a shotgun inside their 17185 Creekside Drive townhouse, in the Creekside Village Development near Dunne Avenue and Butterfield Boulevard.
A police SWAT team, dressed in camouflage uniforms, assembled a short distance away in the parking lot at Frank’s Plumbing on Dunne Avenue about 5 p.m.
The presence of the special team and numerous police cars attracted the attention of many motorists at the heavily traveled intersection during the evening commute hours.
Morales and his mother talked to each other on cell phones while police assembled in the plumbing shop’s parking lot. Several attempts by police negotiators to talk Morales into surrendering were unsuccessful.
“He told his mother he was ready to go,” Morgan Hill Police Lt. Joe Sampson said.
She assumed it meant he was going to attempt suicide, he added.
Morales had not taken his medication this week, police said.
Between the time the shotgun was fired and Mrs. Morales notified police after leaving the home, Morales apparently drove off in his 2001 GMC pickup.
The SWAT team entered the man’s townhouse at 6:45 p.m. and took away a 12-gauge shotgun, a scoped hunting rifle, a .10/.22 semi-automatic rifle and two cane swords from the two-story home.
Morales faces charges of reckless discharge of a firearm and possession of illegal weapons.
The Morales’ next-door neighbors said it was evident the suspect had been despondent in recent days.
Police said Morales was involved in a child custody dispute with his ex-wife a week before in Gilroy.
While driving around fleeing from police, Morales called his ex-wife in Hollister twice, police said. Hollister police went to her residence to protect her and the ex-couple’s 3-year-old child.
