Gilroy
– An armed man barricaded himself in his house near Hecker Pass
for more than an hour Friday, before sheriff deputies convinced the
46-year-old man to surrender.
Gilroy – An armed man barricaded himself in his house near Hecker Pass for more than an hour Friday, before sheriff deputies convinced the 46-year-old man to surrender.
A feud between Ernest Hicks, 7820 Whitehurst Road, and a neighbor led to the standoff, police said.
Inside the house, deputies found three rifles and a locked gun safe, said Lt. Dale Unger, commander of the sheriff’s negotiating team.
They also found two .45-caliber bullet casings, supporting a neighbor’s claim that Hicks fired two shots from the house shortly after a verbal argument between the two men. No one was hurt.
The neighbor also claims Hicks threatened him, saying, “When I leave, I’ll be the only one walking,” according to Unger. Hicks was arrested on suspicion of threatening death or great bodily injury and resisting arrest.
“His statement was, he didn’t think he did anything wrong,” Unger said.
Hicks is losing his home to foreclosure, and the neighbor has testified against him, according to Unger.
The neighbor told deputies he was tending to his horses when Hicks drove home in his pickup truck Friday, made a rude hand gesture before pulling into his garage and then blew a loud air horn that scared the horses.
The neighbor told deputies he yelled angry comment at Hicks, who responded with the perceived threat, entered his house and fired two shots. The neighbor then called the sheriff’s office.
Deputies responded by surrounding the home and evacuating people from a mobile home on Hicks’ property. At one point, a deputy reportedly saw Hicks exit his back door and told him to come forward with his hands up, but Hicks instead went back inside.
Deputies then called in their hostage negotiating team, their SWAT-equivalent Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team and a California Highway Patrol helicopter.
After about an hour of negotiating, during which Hicks hung up the phone on deputies more than once, he finally agreed to come out and give himself up.
The sheriff’s office may have had between 20 and 25 personnel on the scene, Unger said.
A SERT unit usually has about 10 deputies, a negotiating team usually has three, and there were 10 patrol officers at the scene.
“You can’t underestimate some suspects who make threats who have weapons,” Unger said. “You never know when they’re going to start firing at you, so you’ve got to take it seriously.”
