Domestic dispute ends in gunfire

A 2½-hour standoff between a domestic violence suspect and Sonoma County Sheriff's Special Operations Unit ended Tuesday night with shots fired and a 23-year-old Sonoma man in jail.

Sonoma police took a domestic violence report Tuesday afternoon from a woman with visible injuries who said the suspect, Sam Heyerly, had attacked her. She said he had also threatened to kill her and her parents and that he had firearms, Sonoma police Sgt. Clint Shubel said.

According to authorities, when police and deputies arrived at Heyerly's home on Orange Avenue in Sonoma at 8:26 p.m, he barricaded himself inside and fired a shot. Heyerly briefly ran outside, yelled at deputies and returned to the house, Shubel said.

The standoff continued until 11:10 p.m. when Heyerly was spotted in the home's back yard and taken into custody. He was arrested on suspicion of domestic violence, making terrorist threats, resisting arrest, damaging a phone and discharging a gun in a negligent manner. His bail was set at $300,000.

-- Laura Norton