Man arrested after SWAT standoff at Leesburg airport

LEESBURG — A man was arrested this week after a five-hour standoff at Flying Baron Estates Airport, where Randy Rhoads, lead guitarist for Ozzy Osbourne, died in a plane crash 35 years ago.

Charles Stanley Byers, 58, of Leesburg was arrested for aggravated assault and resisting arrest after he pointed a “long gun” at his employer, Jerry Calhoun, according to an arrest report.

Armed with a “wooden colored stick” in his left hand and a firearm, Byers shut himself in Calhoun’s residence Tuesday west of Leesburg near State Road 44, the report said.

Calhoun told officers he was driving his pickup about 10 a.m. when he saw his “employee” frantically waving his arm to get his attention. When he pulled up beside him, Byers “pointed a long gun at [Calhoun’s] face and started pulling the trigger multiple times,” the report said. He said he was in shock and sat there for a moment before speeding away to find his daughter and call 911.

“He felt that Byers was going to kill him,” the report said.

When Lake County deputy sheriffs arrived, Byers had walked outside wearing rubber boots, jeans and a red T-shirt but bolted back inside when he noticed the patrol vehicle, the report said.

After attempts at contact failed, the SWAT team arrived and a standoff began. After five hours of negotiating, Byers was arrested without incident, the report said.

He was being held in the Lake County Jail on $3,000 bond.

Rhoads and two others, Bryan Uridel and Paul Souder, died in the plane crash March 19, 1982, at the privately-owned airport, which had chauffeured celebrities such as Willie Nelson in jets as part of a luxury transportation service.

Osbourne had traveled to Orlando for a concert performance.

Neither the airport nor Jerry Calhoun could be reached for comment.