ESCONDIDO, Calif. -- A gunman who allegedly shot at a patrolman and a police dog after threatening his ex-girlfriend and her children escaped after police thought they had cornered him in a fenced-in mobile home park, authorities said Thursday.
"We’ve had three swat teams helping us out, Carlsbad Police department, San Diego Sheriff’s department and Escondido SWAT team and host of other support including a helicopter all day, since about 1:30," said Escondido police Lt. Michael Loarie. "We’ve had this area shut down, we’ve impacted the community. We searched about 82 coaches, we bounced around across the street, we handled a separate incident at 1333 East Grand and we haven’t found our guy."
The incident at the Escondido Terrace Mobile Home Park in the 1300 block of Oak Hill Drive, near San Pasqual Valley Road, started sometime before 1 a.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. Escondido police called the Sheriff's Department at 12:49 a.m. to request assistance in handling the incident, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Police believed that 24-year-old Sergio Lopez had been completely encircled in the mobile home park, but investigators received a report at about 11 a.m. that a man matching Lopez's description was seen in a housing complex across the street outside the area encircled by police, Loarie said. When officers showed the reporting resident a photo of Lopez, the resident positively identified him, Loarie added.
The full scale search for Lopez at the park ended at about 5:30 p.m. when police allowed park residents and those living in the vicinity of the park back into their homes, officers said.
"This is probably going to be it for tonight unless some other information comes forward," Loarie said.
Resident Nicole Miller said Thursday morning the search was a source of concern.
"I'm a little nervous now because I can see two snipers up the hill from us and big SWAT trucks driving around the park,'' she said.
Miller witnessed the incident unfold from the beginning.
"I was actually awake because my baby woke up,'' Miller said. "My fiancee and I heard a bunch of yelling then two gunshots. We jumped up out of bed and looked out the front window thinking maybe there was domestic fight but there was Escondido police running around with guns and dogs yelling for a guy to come out.
"They had rifles drawn, then the police were telling people to go back inside. Then SWAT showed up and had all their gear on,'' she said.
Escondido police Lt. Neal Griffin said that the incident began when a woman called 911 and reported that her boyfriend had threatened over the telephone to kill her and children. A short time later, a patrol officer spotted the suspect in the area where the woman lives and chased him on foot into the mobile home park, Griffin said.
During the chase, the suspect fired two rounds at the officer and a police dog but no one was hurt, he said.
A perimeter was immediately set up around the mobile home park, with SWAT officers from Escondido and the Sheriff's Department searching for the man.
The park consists of about 80 or so mobile homes, Loarie said, noting there were "thousands'' of possible hiding spaces for the suspect, from garbage cans and storage sheds to crawl spaces under the homes.
In the late afternoon, with the home-by-home searches complete, police officials called the SWAT personnel and other officers off the case. A short time later, pedestrians were allowed back in, after which streets in the area were reopened to civilian traffic.
Police officials planned to continue dedicating significant investigative resources to capturing Lopez, Loarie said.
Loarie said Lopez might have managed to escape the neighborhood shortly after the shooting, before police officers and sheriff's deputies were able to arrive in force.
"We’ve had three swat teams helping us out, Carlsbad Police department, San Diego Sheriff’s department and Escondido SWAT team and host of other support including a helicopter all day, since about 1:30," said Escondido police Lt. Michael Loarie. "We’ve had this area shut down, we’ve impacted the community. We searched about 82 coaches, we bounced around across the street, we handled a separate incident at 1333 East Grand and we haven’t found our guy."
The incident at the Escondido Terrace Mobile Home Park in the 1300 block of Oak Hill Drive, near San Pasqual Valley Road, started sometime before 1 a.m., according to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. Escondido police called the Sheriff's Department at 12:49 a.m. to request assistance in handling the incident, a sheriff's spokeswoman said.
Police believed that 24-year-old Sergio Lopez had been completely encircled in the mobile home park, but investigators received a report at about 11 a.m. that a man matching Lopez's description was seen in a housing complex across the street outside the area encircled by police, Loarie said. When officers showed the reporting resident a photo of Lopez, the resident positively identified him, Loarie added.
The full scale search for Lopez at the park ended at about 5:30 p.m. when police allowed park residents and those living in the vicinity of the park back into their homes, officers said.
"This is probably going to be it for tonight unless some other information comes forward," Loarie said.
Resident Nicole Miller said Thursday morning the search was a source of concern.
"I'm a little nervous now because I can see two snipers up the hill from us and big SWAT trucks driving around the park,'' she said.
Miller witnessed the incident unfold from the beginning.
"I was actually awake because my baby woke up,'' Miller said. "My fiancee and I heard a bunch of yelling then two gunshots. We jumped up out of bed and looked out the front window thinking maybe there was domestic fight but there was Escondido police running around with guns and dogs yelling for a guy to come out.
"They had rifles drawn, then the police were telling people to go back inside. Then SWAT showed up and had all their gear on,'' she said.
Escondido police Lt. Neal Griffin said that the incident began when a woman called 911 and reported that her boyfriend had threatened over the telephone to kill her and children. A short time later, a patrol officer spotted the suspect in the area where the woman lives and chased him on foot into the mobile home park, Griffin said.
During the chase, the suspect fired two rounds at the officer and a police dog but no one was hurt, he said.
A perimeter was immediately set up around the mobile home park, with SWAT officers from Escondido and the Sheriff's Department searching for the man.
The park consists of about 80 or so mobile homes, Loarie said, noting there were "thousands'' of possible hiding spaces for the suspect, from garbage cans and storage sheds to crawl spaces under the homes.
In the late afternoon, with the home-by-home searches complete, police officials called the SWAT personnel and other officers off the case. A short time later, pedestrians were allowed back in, after which streets in the area were reopened to civilian traffic.
Police officials planned to continue dedicating significant investigative resources to capturing Lopez, Loarie said.
Loarie said Lopez might have managed to escape the neighborhood shortly after the shooting, before police officers and sheriff's deputies were able to arrive in force.
