Police end standoff without bloodshed

Karen Zekan

Tuesday, Feb. 23, 1999 | 10:40 a.m.

Marital tensions nearly turned deadly Monday when police attempting to help a woman retrieve possessions from her former northeast Las Vegas home wound up in a shootout with a man wielding a high-powered rifle.

No one was injured in the exchange of fire or the five-hour standoff that followed.

Austin Sands, 53, was arrested and booked into the Clark County Detention Center on multiple felony charges that include attempted murder on a police officer, assault and battery on a police officer and resisting arrest.

Sands was also wanted on several misdemeanor traffic warrants when SWAT officers escorted him out of his house about 1:45 p.m., Metro Police spokesman Steve Meriwether said.

There was nothing unusual about the call Metro received earlier that morning from Sands' ex-wife, asking police at 8:35 a.m. to help her remove some of her possessions from the single-story white house she had shared with Sands during what her son, Craig Becherman, said was 20 years of marriage. Becherman said his mother had just divorced Sands.

"We get dozens of calls a day just like that, and we respond to them all day long," Meriwether said. "People call police for help because domestic situations can become violent."

In fact, police had responded before to the Sands' home at 2651 San Marcos Court, near Pecos Road and Carey Avenue, on domestic dispute calls, he said.

Two patrol officers met the woman at a neutral spot in the neighborhood, then drove the patrol car to the house. Meriwether said they had the ex-wife's permission to enter the property after getting no response at the front door.

Following standard procedure, the officers initiated a room-by-room search to ensure the residence was safe before letting the woman inside. They were heading down a hallway to a back room in the house when they spotted Sands several feet away in a back room.

Meriwether said Sands fired multiple rounds at the uniformed officers, who returned fire. No one was hit.

The officers retreated from the house and called for backup when the man shut the room's door. Metro's Special Weapons and Tactics team responded and eventually entered the home when attempts by patrol officers failed to talk Sands out of the house, Meriwether said.

Police said Sands was lying on the floor when they took him into custody.

"It's been coming for many years," Becherman said. "He's been abusive to my mother. I'm glad he can now get the help he needs."

Becherman said he and his mother, Ellen Sands, gave up Saturday trying to get the woman's things out of the house but didn't elaborate. He said they had come over again Monday, but this time "mostly for the dogs" -- several smooth fox terriers the woman has bred for showing the past 15 years.

The couple's divorce proceedings started two years ago and officially ended Wednesday, Becherman said. He added that his stepfather was an unemployed electrician and his mother was planning to move out of state.