Seven-hour standoff leads to arrest

Editor’s note: This corrects the street the SWAT team members walked down in the photo caption.

CORONA DEL MAR — A seven-hour standoff between a sexual assault suspect and police ended without incident Monday morning in the Cameo Shores neighborhood, authorities said.

David Charles Wilson, 48, surrendered to police about 10 a.m., said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Steve Burdette.

Wilson, who was unarmed, was taken into custody and charged with forced sodomy, Burdette said.

Wilson had barricaded himself in the house in the 4600 block of Camden Drive after officers showed up, Officer David Sanborn said.

The incident began when a neighbor contacted police about 3 a.m. reporting two women outside of the home.

As officers made contact with the women, one said that she had been sexually assaulted and held against her will inside the house, Sanborn said.

Officers tried to make contact with Wilson and asked him to come outside, but he refused. A SWAT team and hostage negotiators was dispatched to the area, along with 15 to 20 members of the Newport Beach Police Department.

Wilson came out of the house of his own will and was taken into custody, said Newport Police Sgt. Keith Krallman.

His bail was set at $100,000, according to the Orange County Register.

Neighbors were surprised to see such a high level of police activity in a normally upscale, quiet neighborhood. Cameo Shores is near Pelican Hill in a hilly area overlooking the beach. Homes there sell for millions of dollars.

“It’s not an area you’d expect that,” said Jim Sickles, a postman who has delivered mail in the area for the past three years.

“I’ve never heard of such a thing” happening in the area, added Pam Hickson, 59, who lived in the neighborhood as a girl and was in town to visit her parents.

Hickson said the family first learned of the news when her father tried to leave for work early that morning and was kept home by the blockade.

Neighbors received a phone call about 9:30 a.m., saying the situation was not “threatening to the community” and they were allowed to come and go, Hickson said.

Workers in the area were asked to stay inside homes in the neighborhood or remain outside a cordoned off area about 7:30 a.m., said Alberto Lopez, who was installing windows and doors.