ESCONDIDO (CNS) - Police surrounded a large mobile home park in Escondido, fanned out en masse through surrounding areas and searched door-to-door for more than 16 hours Thursday after a parolee-at-large allegedly threatened the lives of a former girlfriend and her children, then opened fire on pursuing officers.
The daylong standoff ended shortly after 5 p.m., when police broke down their perimeter around the 1300 block of Oak Hill Drive and allowed residents back in, even though the suspect remained at large, Lt. Mike Loarie said.
The events leading up to the concerted law enforcement operation began about 8:30 p.m. Wednesday, when a woman contacted police to report receiving death threats from a former boyfriend, 24-year-old Sergio Alfredo Lopez.
Officers searched in vain for Lopez until about 12:30 this morning, when patrol personnel with a service dog spotted the suspect and chased him as he fled into Escondido Terrace Mobile Home Park, according to Loarie.
Lopez allegedly fired two rounds from a pistol at the two officers as he ran, missing them.
Police then took up positions around the perimeter of the trailer park as SWAT officers and sheriff's deputies searched for the suspect.
As of 10 a.m., Lopez, an Escondido resident, was believed to still be alternately hiding and moving around within the residential complex. Police received a report around 11 a.m. that an out-of-breath man matching Lopez's description was in the area of an apartment complex on San Pasqual Valley Road, just outside the police cordon.
"We have some people ... across the street (who) said they spotted him," Loarie said. "We showed them (his) picture, and they said that's him, so we're going to act on that."
Police officials received word shortly after 1 p.m. of a nearby home-invasion crime that they initially believed might have been carried out by Lopez.
However, the incident - in which a man allegedly followed a woman into her apartment and pulled a knife on her before officers stormed in and arrested him - turned out to be unrelated.
The intense, protracted standoff and methodical search for Lopez kept those who live and work in the area on edge throughout the day.
"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," resident Nicole Miller said in the mid-morning.
Miller said she witnessed the incident unfolding from the beginning.
"I was actually awake because my baby woke up," Miller said.
"My fiancé 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 a 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."
The mobile home complex consists of about 80 coach spaces, Loarie said, noting there were "thousands" of possible hiding spaces for the suspect, from garbage cans and storage sheds to crawl spaces under the residences.
Those living in the park and adjacent areas were allowed to leave at daybreak after officers searched their vehicles. However, no one was to be allowed back into those neighborhoods until further notice.
Loarie said anyone spotting the suspect should avoid confronting him and immediately call 911.
"Stay on the phone with us, as long as you're in a position of safety," Loarie said. "Let us know. We'll have officers there within seconds."
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.
Photo submitted by News 8 viewer browe105. Picture taken inside the Escondido Terrace Mobile Home Park.
