CARLSBAD — Police arrested a 33-year-old Lomita man at a Carlsbad Village motel today after he brandished a samurai sword at paramedics responding to an unrelated medical emergency.
Police were dispatched around 9:40 a.m. Sunday to the Carlsbad Village Inn, at 1006 Carlsbad Village Drive, according to the Carlsbad Police Department. There were no details available concerning the unrelated medical emergency.
Officers tried to make contact with the man, later identified as Eliot Rauk, through the door of his motel room, where he allegedly threatened to kill them while holding a handgun reported to have been seen through the room’s window, police said. Some areas of the motel were evacuated, with the Carlsbad SWAT team responding shortly afterward.
Rauk then barricaded himself in the motel room for several hours while the police department’s Crisis Negotiation Team tried to make — and ultimately did make — cell phone contact with him.
At 2:36 that afternoon, Rauk exited his room and was safely taken into custody.
After a thorough search of the room, authorities found a samurai sword and a semiautomatic handgun.
Rauk was transported to Tri-City Hospital for a medical evaluation and will be booked into Vista Jail on suspicion of making terrorist threats, unlawfully brandishing a weapon and threats of violence against a police officer.
Read more local crime news here, including Weekly Crime Reports and Daily Arrest Logs for up-to-the-minute arrest reports in North County.Â
