Costa Mesa Man Found Dead After 8-Hour Standoff

COSTA MESA — Police stormed a Hamilton Street apartment where a 31-year-old man had been barricaded for nearly eight hours Thursday and found him dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Police responded to a report of a woman screaming in the apartment of Robert Dean Stubbs, 31, about 1:30 p.m. Thursday, Sgt. Karl Schuler said. After learning that Stubbs had apparently threatened his wife with a gun and fired a single shot inside the apartment, located in the 500 block of Hamilton Street, they evacuated the apartment complex and cordoned off the surrounding area.

Stubbs' wife apparently fled the apartment unharmed, a police spokesman said.

During the standoff, SWAT negotiators tried to make contact with Stubbs, but found that his telephone had been disconnected, Schuler said.

Officers later fired tear gas into the building. They stormed the apartment at about 9 p.m. and found Stubbs dead from a gunshot wound that the county coroner's office later ruled was self-inflicted.

Police believe Stubbs fired the fatal shot at about 1:30 p.m., shortly before they arrived, a spokesman said.