The Santa Clara County Sheriff's SWAT team resolved a potentially violent situation in San Martin after an armed 24-year-old man barricaded himself in his home near Murphy and Maple avenues for more than five hours Tuesday night.
The SWAT team responded after a woman reported that her boyfriend, Justin Khoury, had been threatening suicide and fired more than one round into the air. She escaped uninjured from the house they shared. However, the SWAT team was called in shortly after 10:30 p.m. because the man had blocked himself in with a weapon. They responded within 20 minutes of the call, Sgt. Don Morrissey reported. When they arrived, it was unclear whether or not the man was still in the home. He had been sending text messages to his girlfriend's phone claiming he was no longer inside.
Over the next several hours, nearby residents were evacuated and the SWAT team collaborated with the California Highway Patrol to help translate for some of the neighbors. A CHP helicopter flew overhead to check for heat sources, Morrissey said.
Once officers exhausted all means of communication, they entered the home and found the emotionally distraught man laying outside the house huddled against a wall and bundled in several layers of blankets. Several structures on the property had been blocking him from view, Morrissey said. The standoff was peacefully resolved about 3:45 a.m. and police took Khoury into custody for willfully discharging a weapon with gross negligence and resisting arrest, deputies reported.
Sara Suddes Sara Suddes is the education reporter for South Valley Newspapers. Send her an email or (408) 847-7158.
