Sonoma man recovering from stabbing, son in jail

A Sonoma man who was stabbed repeatedly in the Temelec retirement community on Friday night is recovering at a Napa hospital while his son sits in jail on an attempted murder charge.

Hector Gustavo Vasquez, 55, was arrested early Saturday morning after a nearly seven-hour standoff with Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies. Vasquez stabbed his father “multiple” times in the stomach and torso around 6 p.m. Friday before barricading himself in the home they shared on the 1200 block of Mission Drive, according to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office.

The father, whose name and age were withheld by deputies, was taken to Queen of the Valley Medical Center in Napa. The man, reportedly in his 70s, was listed in stable condition, a hospital official said Saturday.

The father and son live together in the three-bedroom, ranch-style home near the corner of Mission and Arnold drives, part of the Temelec neighborhood outside Sonoma, sheriff’s Sgt. Shannon McAlvain said.

Neighbors knew little about Vasquez and his father. They said the family was renting the home and had lived there for a short period of time. They mostly kept to themselves, neighbors said.

Lynn Hilliard, whose mother lives two doors down from Vasquez on Mission Drive, said she spends every weekend at her mother’s home but had seen the neighbors only a few times.

Hilliard was getting ready to make dinner when she heard her neighbor had stabbed his father and fled into his home. It wasn’t long before emergency medical personnel, hostage negotiators and the Sheriff’s Office SWAT team swarmed the street.

“It was like watching a police show in slow motion,” she said.

The street was blocked off to traffic between Arnold Drive and Temelec Circle. It remained closed until the incident was resolved shortly before 1 a.m.

Some neighbors were asked to leave their homes, while others were able to stay. SWAT members were positioned around Vasquez’s home with their guns drawn - an unusual scene for many residents in the retirement community, where at least one resident per home must be 55 or older.

“It’s a really quiet, pleasant neighborhood,” said Marie Mumhern, who lives down the block. “Nothing like this ever happens here.”

Negotiators tried various tactics to communicate with Vasquez. They sent in a robot equipped with a microphone and video cameras, talked to him through a loudspeaker and even offered to take him to his mother.

“Gustavo - come out to the front door and we will take you to see your mama,” a negotiator said Friday night through the loudspeaker.

Just before 1 a.m., SWAT team members broke a bedroom window and climbed into the home. Vasquez peacefully surrendered, deputies said. He is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday.

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com.