SAN DIEGO (CBS 8/CNS) - A 33-year-old man was behind bars Tuesday on suspicion of trying to gun down police officers during a Clairemont-area SWAT standoff that began with a domestic-violence call and escalated into a shootout.
Police were called to the 1400 block of Mount St. Helens Drive shortly after 9 p.m. Monday to investigate a disturbance between a man and woman in front of a home, Lt. Mike Holden said.
Arriving in the neighborhood near Tecolote Canyon, officers contacted Hayden Abraham Gerson of San Diego and a woman whose name was not released.
While being questioned, Gerson allegedly became belligerent, ran into the house and retrieved a handgun. The officers took cover and called for backup from a special weapons and tactics unit, and Gerson went back into the residence.
The SWAT personnel were in the process of taking up positions around the house when Gerson allegedly opened fire on two of them, prompting an exchange of gunfire that left no one wounded.
A short time later, Gerson came out of the residence unarmed. As officers took him into custody, he became combative, punching and choking one officer and attacking a service dog before being zapped with an electric stun gun and taken into custody, Holden said.
Around dawn, a hazardous-materials team and a bomb squad were called to the house after police found barrels with an unknown liquid inside, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. They gave an all-clear about two hours later. Authorities did not disclose what was found in the containers.
Two officers who scuffled with the suspect were treated at a trauma center for minor injuries, police said.
The names of the SWAT officers who returned fire during the gun battle -- five- and nine-year members of the SDPD -- were not immediately released.
Gerson was checked out at a hospital before being booked into San Diego Central Jail on suspicion of three counts of attempted murder and charges of resisting arrest, making criminal threats, harming a police dog and trying to take possession of an officer's gun.
He was being held without bail pending arraignment, scheduled for Thursday afternoon.