MAN SHOOTS HIMSELF DURING STANDOFF

A man shot himself Wednesday afternoon during a standoff with law enforcement outside the FBI’s San Diego field office in Sorrento Valley, authorities said.

The man approached the office on Vista Sorrento Parkway about 4 p.m., carrying a handgun and appearing to be suicidal, the FBI said in a tweet Wednesday evening. Agents inside the building “immediately responded to the scene” outside the office, as did San Diego police.

The man shot himself before FBI crisis negotiators, bomb technicians and SWAT agents reached the site.

The incident lasted about 45 minutes before the man shot himself one time, Special Agent Peter Casey said. No other shots were fired, and investigators later recovered the handgun used in the shooting.

Casey would not say if there was any communication between agents and the man before the man shot himself, and said he was “not aware” of whether FBI agents had any previous contact with the man.

Casey said investigators knew the man’s identity, but he declined to release it. He also declined to disclose the man’s condition, saying only that medics had transported him to a hospital.

San Diego Fire-Rescue confirmed that it took a patient to the hospital in a critical status. Emergency radio traffic indicated the man shot himself about 4:50 p.m., and that FBI agents “took him into custody” a few minutes later. About 5:25 p.m., San Diego police tweeted the “scene is safe.”

Several hours after the shooting, investigators stood around the scene talking with law enforcement personnel in tactical gear.

The incident appeared to have unfolded near a curb lined with bushes near the south entrance to the heavily fortified building. A San Diego police radio call had indicated the man was crouching in bushes outside the gate during the incident.