Man in Seaside standoff had BB gun

SEASIDE >> According to the Monterey County Sheriff's Office, the man in a standoff with police Thursday was armed with a BB gun.

In a statement posted to Facebook, the Sheriff's Office said the rifle the man was holding was discovered to be a BB gun after deputies served a search warrant and collected the rifle.

“When deputies arrived on-scene, but just prior to approaching the residence, deputies heard what they described as muffled gunshots and saw glass splintering from the windshield of the patrol car,” the Sheriff's Office said. “At this point deputies thought they were being shot at by a man they knew owned firearms. This led to the response (Thursday).”

Police stated Thursday during the incident that the man was armed with a real gun that he fired toward law enforcement officials.

The Sheriff's Office identified the man as Vahe Ohanian and said he was booked into Monterey County Jail

Thursday on charges of assault with a deadly weapon (not a firearm), terrorist threats and obstructing an officer. A bail enhancement was granted, and his bail was set at $1,000,000.

The incident began when the Sheriff's Office served an eviction notice, with Thursday as the mandatory move-out date ordered by the court. Officials say Ohanian had emailed threats to several people including the Sheriff's Office. Due to those circumstances, four deputies were assigned to serve the final eviction. The Sheriff's

Office said the deputies knew of the email threats and knew he had two handguns registered to him from the 1990s.

The standoff in Seaside near Fremont Boulevard and Echo Avenue started in the morning and went on for hours until the man surrendered peacefully Thursday afternoon. There were no injuries during the incident. It caused road closures, an evacuation of the apartment building the man was in, and a shelter-in-place order for the nearby neighborhood.