Standoff ends peacefully

A four-hour standoff involving police negotiators and the SWAT team ended peacefully Friday night after a man known to be proficient with weapons barricaded himself inside a Costa Mesa office complex.

Police coaxed Rob Kaululaau Tom, 37, of Santa Ana from the building at about 9:40 p.m.

“He came out peacefully,” Costa Mesa Police Lt. Karl Schuler said. “The hostage negotiators did a great job.”

Tom had a small black dog in the building with him, police said. One of Tom’s co-workers in a mortgage lending business told police he believed Tom had a gun. Orange County probation officers were in the process of searching the building.

Probation officers were serving an arrest warrant at about 5:20 p.m., police said. But it was unclear at the Pilot’s press time how the standoff began.

Costa Mesa Police Lt. Loren Wyrick said Tom’s probation violations had stacked up. Tom may have violated a domestic-violence-related restraining order. He has past convictions for domestic violence, Wyrick said.

The office complex, at 2900 Bristol Street, houses several businesses, and police said Tom works in the complex.

Wyrick said Tom has been known to carry and be proficient with weapons, and is in “excellent physical condition.”

“He would be a physical threat if he chose to be,” Wyrick said.

— Lauren Vane, Alicia Robinson and Matt Ballinger contributed to this report.