Pepper Spray Ends 12-Hour Standoff In Healdsburg

Healdsburg police waited 12 hours outside a storage unit before discharging pepper spray to capture a domestic violence suspect and end the standoff this morning, a police sergeant said.

Officer Frank Patane contacted Robert Osuna, 46, of Healdsburg around 9:20 p.m. Monday at Empire Mini Storage at 1200 Grove St., Sgt. Luis Rodriguez said. Osuna was wanted on a felony warrant for allegedly attacking and causing serious injury to his girlfriend with a machete, Rodriguez said.

Osuna retreated inside the storage unit and kept officers at bay using tools as weapons, Rodriguez said.

He then asked police to shoot him, shut the storage unit door and barricaded it closed, Rodriguez said. A member of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office’s negotiations team communicated with Osuna but he refused to surrender, Rodriguez said.

Officers waited outside the storage unit overnight and tried to get Osuna to surrender at 9:45 a.m. today but he said he would come out only if he was shot, Rodriguez said.

Osuna emerged after a pepper spray fogger was set off inside the storage unit and he was taken into custody on the assault warrant and on suspicion of obstructing and delaying police, Rodriguez said.

--Bay City News