By Henry K. Lee
The San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO — A five-hour standoff that ended in the shooting death of a rifle-wielding man in Pleasant Hill was too dangerous to involve his father, who came to the scene and pleaded with police to let him talk to his son, authorities said Monday.
Renardo Flores, 32, was shot and killed shortly before 4 p.m. Sunday after holing up in his home and that of a neighbor on Audrey Lane near the Sunvalley Mall and repeatedly firing at officers trying to flush him out, said Pleasant Hill police Lt. Dan Connelly.
The incident began with a report of gunfire at 10:50 a.m. Police later learned that Flores got into an argument with two friends, a man and a woman, and shot the man with a semiautomatic handgun, Connelly said. The victim checked himself into a hospital with minor gunshot wounds.
Police went into an adjoining yard and confronted Flores, who fired at them with an assault rifle, Connelly said. An officer fired one shot in return. Police cordoned off the neighborhood, located near busy Contra Costa Boulevard.
Police tried to negotiate with Flores and fired less-lethal projectiles and tear gas into the home, but he fired at officers several times, Connelly said. Over the next five hours, he moved between his house and the one next door, where no one was home, police said.
Flores was shot after coming out the back door of his home with the rifle, police said.
Flores’ father, Roger Flores, told reporters at the scene that he had begged with police to let him talk to his son. Officers told him they were trying to get his son to surrender through a variety of measures.
“He was a very good son and ... he was very loved and he loved a lot of people, and I just don’t know what happened,” the elder Flores said. “I just know the negotiations went bad, and I’ve lost a son.”
Police said that standard procedure in armed standoffs is not to involve relatives or third parties in negotiations.
Speaking generally, Connelly said, “Negotiation with armed, dangerous suspects is a very highly skilled field, and negotiators have to be very careful what they say and how the say it so they don’t make the situation worse.”
Conversations between standoff suspects and acquaintances or relative are not controlled by police negotiators and could be “extremely dangerous,” Connelly said.
“They could say all the right things, but if they don’t know what to say or how to say it, even well-meaning comments could potentially be the one that makes the situation worse.”
Copyright 2009 San Francisco Chronicle