Body found in home; man jailed following standoff

Keith Paul

Tuesday, Jan. 11, 2000 | 11:12 a.m.

Metro Police SWAT officers arrested a man this morning who had barricaded himself inside a town house and refused to talk to negotiators after a body was discovered inside the home.

A woman called police about 5:15 a.m., saying she had been in an argument with a man in the town house and then left. She told police that when she returned to the home in the 4000 block of Castle Cove Drive she saw a body in a pool of blood on the floor, said Metro spokesman Officer Laz Chavez.

She told officers a man, who she had an argument with earlier in the morning, was alive and in the house.

"Officers went to the house and when they made contact with the man, he slammed the door shut on the officers," Chavez said. "The officers went into the house concerned for the person on the floor."

The officers determined the person on the floor was dead, and the man who answered the door had barricaded himself in another part of the house. The officers then backed out of the house, police said.

Metro negotiators tried for several hours to talk with the man still inside the house, but he never responded, Lt. Marc Joseph said.

Since the man did not attempt to talk with the police, SWAT officers were sent in and took the man into custody about 8:55 a.m. Names of the suspect, the dead person or the woman were unavailable this morning.

The relationship between the woman and man taken into custody was not immediately available. Nor was it immediately known this morning if the dead person had any connection with the argument between the man and woman, police said.

Police evacuated several of the nearby town houses in the development near North Rainbow Boulevard and West Alexander Street.

Once the man was taken into custody, homicide detectives entered the house and started an investigation. No information about the person found dead inside the town house was available this morning.

This morning's slaying is the fourth homicide this year in Metro's jurisdiction compared to two at the same time last year. There was a total of 113 homicides in Metro's jurisdiction last year.