Displaced residents of a Morgan Hill apartment complex are still waiting to return home, weeks after a suspected armed robber hid out in their building, prompting police to disperse a chemical agent inside that left the residences temporarily uninhabitable.
Among those affected is the Smith family, who has had no option but to stay in hotels for the last four weeks due to damages resulting from the suspect’s recklessness and the police response. But the Smiths don’t blame the police, and on the contrary are grateful to the authorities for keeping them safe and to the community for helping them stay sheltered.
“I would have done the exact same thing” as the police, said Darrell Smith, who enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps at the age of 17 and subsequently served in the Army Reserves. “When lives are on the line, I wouldn’t expect anything less.”
Among the weapons used by the SWAT team in the Sept. 5 standoff on Berry Court was a chemical agent, “equivalent to a pepper spray/powder,” in an effort to coax the suspect out, Morgan Hill Police Sgt. Carson Thomas said.
Smith recently pointed through the window to show where the suspect tore a large hole through the ceiling to get into the living space.
Shortly after the suspect was arrested following the 13-hour standoff, Darrell entered his apartment and his tear ducts and sinuses immediately began running like a faucet—an effect of the chemical agent, which he thought was tear gas.
The chemical seeped into the Smiths’ furniture, carpets, clothing, food, stuffed animals and other belongings, Darrell was told. The family can’t return to their Berry Court apartment, where they have lived about a year, until a high-powered fan equipped with a special filter, running 24 hours a day, can remove the chemicals from the air and walls.
“Everything is ruined,” said Darrell Smith, who is studying forensic accounting at Franklin University while working full-time as a security guard at a Morgan Hill company. “They have to tear up the carpets and replace them.”
On Sept. 5, Morgan Hill police followed the robbery suspect to the Villa Teresa complex on Berry Court. Reports earlier that day indicated the man and an accomplice had robbed the GameStop video game store in Morgan Hill by holding customers hostage at gunpoint. The two suspects stole the victims’ personal belongings and fled the scene, according to police.
With specific information on the type of vehicle in which the robbers drove away, police followed one of the suspects to the Berry Court apartments on the northwest side of town.
The man, who has not been identified and was not a resident of the complex, climbed into one of a cluster of buildings in the complex, which contained three apartment units, according to Thomas. The suspect climbed into the building through the roof and crawled among the three units through the attic.
Police surrounded the block, but the robber refused to surrender, police said. Officers called in the Morgan Hill-Gilroy SWAT team, which stayed on the scene for 13 hours. After that, the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Emergency Response Team took over.
“He hunkered down the whole duration” of the SWAT team’s shift, Thomas said. “The sheriff’s office took over and he surrendered.”
Nobody was injured in the standoff and resulting arrest, police said.
Smith and his wife Christa, and their two young children, were not home at the time of the Berry Court break-in and ensuing police standoff. In fact, Darrell, 28, said his family had left the home just before the robber broke in.
Darrell later arrived home to a police perimeter surrounding his block. His family had already returned to the same scene, and Christa was outside advising emergency personnel on the layout of their residence in their effort to catch the potentially armed suspect.
Christa Smith, who also works full-time and attends Gavilan College in Gilroy, said Tuesday that the landlord still hasn’t given the family a timeline as to when they might be able to move back in.
The first few days after the incident, the Smiths bounced among different hotels. For the last several weeks, they have stayed at the Residence Inn in Morgan Hill.
Cecelia’s Closet and Food Pantry, a nonprofit run by the Edward “Boss” Prado Foundation, helped the family out with clothing and food after the incident, added Darrell. The city helped them pay for a few nights in a hotel.
“Morgan Hill, as a community, has really come to our aid. It’s been real heart warming,” Darrell said.
The family is asking the community for help via a website at gofundme.com/xx3rhwgk, where they are asking for monetary donations to help pay for hotel rooms until they can return home.
While the dilemma has also been hard on the couple’s 6-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter, they don’t blame the police or the city.
A statement on their gofundme.com site adds, “We are so grateful to SWAT, Gilroy, and Morgan Hill P.D., and especially the Red Cross.”
All three units in the building remain closed to the residents, with the windows covered by plywood. Others locked out of their homes could not be contacted.
Sgt. Thomas added that police are still looking for the second suspect in the Sept. 5 armed robbery. The investigation is ongoing, and authorities have not released the name of the suspect apprehended in the Berry Court standoff.
