Gunman Surrenders After Standoff

A 70-year-old gun collector who alarmed his neighbors by shooting at imagined invaders in his home held police at bay for 12 hours before surrendering Friday morning.

Sherman Clyde Phillips, described by friends as a former Navy cook and Standard Oil employee, was arrested about 11 a.m. on suspicion of firing a gun in a grossly negligent manner, a felony offense, according to Placentia police spokeswoman Corinne Loomis.

No one was hurt during the incident in the 2400 block of North Rose Drive, which ended when police negotiators persuaded Phillips to walk out of his home shirtless and unarmed.

A neighbor who tried to calm Phillips down Thursday night said the suspect was drinking and agitated, firing an M-1 carbine rifle at phantom attackers he believed had broken into his home and raped his mother, who died three years ago.

“The house smelled like the gunfight at the OK Corral,” said J.C. Campbell, who called police when his efforts to calm Phillips failed. “I asked him, ‘Clyde, what the hell is going on?’ ”

Phillips was given a psychiatric examination Friday afternoon, and the results of those tests will determine whether police ask the district attorney to file the felony charge or opt instead to send the retiree into a medical care program, Loomis said. Police also seized Phillips’ gun collection for safekeeping, she said.

Janice Mujica has shared a fence with Phillips for 41 years, as their neighborhood has changed from orange groves to strip malls. She described Phillips as a shy lifelong bachelor who loves to cook and lived with his parents until their deaths.

“He’s a good person; there’s no intent for damage here,” Mujica said as she watched heavily armed officers during the standoff. “I think he’s mixed up. For him to be shooting, he must be.”