Damian Trujillo
San Jose respond to hostage situation
San Jose police remain in a standoff with an armed man who shot two people this morning and is still holding one victim hostage in a town home, police spokesman Jermaine Thomas said.
Police have blocked off the streets near the Chateau La Salle mobile home park in South San Jose to deal with a family dispute that escalated into a double shooting and hostage situation.
Officers were called at 8:39 a.m. to a home on Esfahan Drive, a new street off Monterey Highway that is part of the Montecito Vista housing development.
A standoff began between police and the shooter, who is still inside the home with a woman who was shot, Thomas said.
The second victim, a man, managed to leave the house when police first arrived, Thomas said. One witness said he had a wound on his ear. Neither victim's injuries appeared to be life-threatening, Thomas said.
Police evacuated a nearby condo and mobile home park.
Responding officers also removed a 9-year-old child from the home who was unharmed, Thomas said.
Thomas would not say whether police are in contact with the gunman. He said the shooting appears to have stemmed from "some type of family dispute" but would not say how the suspect and victims are related.
Neighbor Tony Gallardo said that after the shooting happened, he saw the injured man and brought him inside to call police.
The man told Gallardo that he had been shot and that another man was holding his wife and daughter hostage, Gallardo said.
Gallardo then found the girl, 9, near the side of his home crying hysterically, he said. He brought her inside also as they waited for police to arrive.
Another neighbor, Sana Abbasi, said she heard "loud bangs," around 8:30 a.m. followed by a man yelling, "He's got a gun!"
Abbasi said she and her husband often see the couple playing Frisbee and ball outside with their daughter.
She and her husband, Kamran Khan, were evacuated by police and spent the morning standing outside.
Khan was unable to get to work, he said, because his car is inside the barricaded perimeter. Khan said he believes the incident stemmed from a custody dispute between the two victims, who are married, and the suspect.
Neighbors said the gunman is the woman's ex-husband or ex-boyfriend and the biological father of the young girl.
This afternoon at 12:04 p.m., what sounded like a gunshot was heard coming from the area where the suspect was barricaded. Another shot was heard about five minutes later.
Thomas said the sounds were a diversionary tactic but that no gunshots had been fired by the SWAT team at the suspect, or vice versa.
