A Tucson man killed his 34 year old wife and was then shot and killed by a Tucson Police SWAT today after a five-hour standoff at his parent’s home, near North Silverbell Road, and West Grant Road.
Nearby Brichta Elementary School went into lockdown. Students were relocated to Tully School to be picked by their parents or ride the bus home.
The standoff began at approximately 12:30 p.m., it ended at approximately 5:30 p.m. after the barricaded man appeared at an upstairs window and was shot by a SWAT officer.
Hostage negotiators and the SWAT team were called in, but police report that the man appeared irate and irrational. Police were unable to talk with the man who kept hanging up the phone on them.
Police played a taped message by the man’s family urging him to surrender to no avail.
The man lived in the basement of his parents’ home in the 2000 block of West Saddle Hills Drive, with his wife. The man’s mother reported, in a call to 911, that the front door was locked and she heard a gunshot.
In total, the man fired more than 25 shots at police. No officers were hurt.