A potentially deadly situation ended peacefully Monday, after
Morgan Hill Police officers and the SWAT team spent six hours
outside the home of a 55-year-old Morgan Hill man, who threatened
to kill police and himself. Kevin Fifield surrendered from his home
on Oak Leaf Ave., off E. Dunne Ave. in east Morgan Hill, just after
5pm, after refusing to surrender to authorities for hours.
A potentially deadly situation ended peacefully Monday, after Morgan Hill Police officers and the SWAT team spent six hours outside the home of a 55-year-old Morgan Hill man, who threatened to kill police and himself.
Kevin Fifield surrendered from his home on Oak Leaf Ave., off E. Dunne Ave. in east Morgan Hill, just after 5pm, after refusing to surrender to authorities for hours. Police searched Fifield for weapons, but found none. He was secured to stretcher and taken for evaluation by ambulance.
The standoff began when Morgan Hill police were called by Fifield’s counselor. The counselor said Fifield was threatening to take his own life. After officers began to arrive at the home, Fifield allegedly told his counselor, whom he was talking to on the phone, that he would shoot a police officer.
“He said he had a gun, his wife said there was no gun, and dispatchers found no record of a weapon registered to him,” MHPD Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Monday. “But we have to take precautions. There are knives in the house, for instance.”
The SWAT team was deployed approximately three hours into the incident when Fifield refused to continue negotiations. Originally, his counselor was talking to him by phone and was in contact with officers on the scene. But when the counselor wanted to mislead Fifield and promise him he would not be handcuffed if he came out, Sampson said no.
“The (MHPD) negotiators are trying to establish a rapport with the suspect, to establish credibility,” said Sampson. “If he comes out, and we come running up with cuffs and guns, and he runs back into the house, the game is over. There’s no more trust.”
Soon after, Fifield refused to talk to his counselor.
Fifield’s wife had been located and was at the police station talking with the negotiators.
“His wife reported that he had a history of problems,” MHPD Cmdr. Joe Sampson said Monday. “She told us he had ‘issues.’”
Fifield had demanded his wife come to the house to walk with him, but Sampson said officers could not permit that for fear he would take his wife hostage, or in some way endanger her. The wife gave SWAT negotiators her cell phone, and they went to the scene and were able to gain permission to use a neighbor’s house as a base.
“In a way, I was relieved they were there,” said Katie LoBeau, who had taken the day off to study when officers arrived on her doorstep. “I was scared before, not really knowing what was going on, so I felt safer with them in the house.”
As negotiations dragged on, Fifield screamed at negotiators over the phone to leave him alone. He repeatedly demanded that his wife be allowed to come to him, and he wanted officers to promise no handcuffs if he surrendered.
The negotiations ceased, as Fifield refused to answer the phone.
“Apparently, his wife then phoned a friend, and the friend called the house,” Sampson said. “Fifield then wanted the friend to come to the house, but we could not allow that either, for the same reason.”
But negotiators did get the friend to tell Fifield to call them and that handcuffs would not be used. Shortly afterwards, Fifield surrendered.
The standoff kept some residents away from their home for hours. Officers had knocked on neighbors’ doors as the standoff began, asking them to leave the area or stay away from doors and windows in their home. Gary Ulbrich chose to stay.
“I told my wife to find something to do, to stall, before she came home,” he said. “It seems to me this hasn’t become a kinder, gentler society. People seem more desperate. It seems to me quality of life is inversely proportional to population.”
Many were turned away at the intersection of Oak Leaf and Dunne. During the standoff, traffic was not allowed to go up Oak Leaf, but as the standoff dragged on throughout the afternoon, officers decided to keep out only those who had to pass the Fifield house to go home and those who lived in the immediate vicinity.
“This is scary,” Anna Mendez said while waiting to go home. “I just want to go home. Why can’t we go home? And what about the people who are already there, are they safe?”
