An hours-long standoff between a shooting suspect and police concluded Monday afternoon when officers made entry to the San Jose home and found the suspect and a woman dead of gunshot wounds, police Officer Jermaine Thomas said.
The incident began around 8:40 a.m., when police received a call from a neighbor reporting gunshots at a home on Esfahan Drive, part of a new cul-de-sac town home development off Monterey Highway. Police arrived on the scene to find a family dispute that had escalated into a double shooting and hostage situation, according to Thomas.
The suspect had allegedly shot a 35-year-old man, who managed to escape the home, and a 35-year-old woman, who was being held hostage.
The man was taken to a local hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
A 9-year-old child also managed to escape from the home unharmed, Thomas said. A neighbor said he found the little girl distraught in the middle of the street looking for her parents. He said he got her inside his garage until police could arrive.
The shooting appears to have stemmed from "some type of family dispute," Thomas said. He would not say how the suspect and victims are related.
Thomas said police tried to make contact with the occupants of the home during the standoff, but were unsuccessful. Around 2 p.m., officers forced entry to the home and found the two bodies. No officers fired weapons during the incident, Thomas said.
While the deceased 39-year-old man is a suspect in the morning double shooting, investigators have not yet labeled him a suspect in the death of the woman.
Residents who live in the development were unable to return to their homes for much of the day. Many were standing outside on Monterey Highway, wearing only pajamas after being evacuated. Part of a nearby mobile home park was also evacuated for part of the day.
Neighbor Tony Gallardo said that after the first shooting happened, he saw the injured man outside his town home 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 is the same man who helped the little girl get to safety.
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, Kamran Khan, were evacuated by police and spent much of the day 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.
