YUBA CITY, CA – What began with a report of a man threatening his neighbors ended with him being shot to death in an extended gun battle with police Thursday night.
The Sutter County Sheriff/Coroner identified the man as Stanley Preston Thompson, 60.
Neighbors said Thompson lived alone and described him as "cantankerous."
Yuba City police spokeswoman Shawna Pavey said officers were dispatched to the house at 2907 Hillview Dr. around 9:44 p.m.
Pavey said officers knocked on Thompson's door upon arrival, but he initially ignored their call to come out of the house. When he finally came to the door, she said, Thompson carried a rifle and a handgun and refused orders to drop the weapons.
"The subject came out of the door, and the officers were ordering him to drop his guns, he did not do that, and we did fire at the suspect," Pavey said. "He then retreated over to the east side of his residence, and then continued to fire upon our officers, and then backup officers as they arrived."
It was unclear how many shots were fired by police, but they said the suspect fired his gun multiple times.
Neighbors said the ordeal lasted more than an hour.
Kris Daniels, who said a SWAT team staged in his backyard, spent the entire time with his three young children lying flat on the floor of their home.
"It was crazy," Daniels said. "We couldn't really get any information, so that was the scariest part."
"He would complain a lot," said neighbor Sara Walkup, whose last conversation with Thompson centered around his fear that he was under government surveillance.
"(He believed) the government was watching him, that they had spy equipment in his house and were keeping an eye on him," she said.
The Sutter County Sheriff's Office, District Attorney's Office, Yuba City Police Department and the California Department of Justice are all involved in the investigation.
