Family sues over man's suicide during armed standoff with authorities outside his home
The family of a California man who committed suicide after a nearly 12-hour standoff with law enforcement outside his home has filed a federal civil rights suit against Sonoma County.
It alleges that authorities violated Glenn Swindell’s constitutional rights to free speech and to bear arms, as well as constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure, when they engaged in an unwarranted military-style assault that pushed him into taking his own life, reports the Press Democrat.
A 911 call from the 39-year-old grocery store employee’s wife reporting a domestic incident sparked the standoff. It eventually ended after law enforcement officers tossed tear gas into broken windows and broke through the front of the home in an armored vehicle. They found Swindell’s dead body inside.
Officials declined to comment after the suit was filed. However, Sonoma County sheriff’s lieutenant Mark Essick said earlier that department policy required Swindell to be arrested following a report of domestic violence concerning someone who had guns in the home. Swindell’s widow now says the dispute that led her to call 911 was verbal rather than physical.
Swindell’s family says he wasn’t suicidal, but may have suffered from post-traumatic stress from an auto accident. They claim authorities overreacted when they learned Swindell had two legally registered guns and saw what they interpreted as statements against law enforcement on his Facebook page.
The family says Swindell worried about overzealous police action. His wife says she found a copy of the Bill of Rights on the kitchen counter after his death, where he had apparently been reading it as he tried to figure out what to do about the onslaught.
“They were going after him for who he was,” Swindell’s younger brother Rick told the newspaper. “That’s the problem here. They pushed him into a corner where he had to kill himself.”
An earlier Press Democrat story provides more details.
