A SWAT standoff was sparked in La Mirada Monday night into Tuesday morning after a woman allegedly threatened to shoot her husband.
"I came home and she was in the backyard .. screaming and yelling," her husband of 24 years Eric Lilja said, "She came out with a gun and pointed it at me and said that she was going to kill me, to get off the property."
Surrounding homes were evacuated and the neighborhood was put on lockdown after the 58-year-old woman, identified by her husband as Maureen Lilja, refused to leave her home in the 15200 block of Borda Road, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.
Eric said the standoff was sparked after she threatened to shoot him when he turned up at their house.
“You know it’s pretty frightening, she could have been killed if she pointed that gun at the officers or the SWAT team that came in,” he added.
The standoff ended nearly six hours after it started. Authorities dragged a car out of a driveway, tore down a fence and gate and eventually ripped the garage door off to get to Maureen before she surrendered peacefully.
Lilja said she was armed with a pellet gun, rather than a firearm. No shots were fired before or during the standoff.
Strangers came by in the morning and started helping Eric clean up the mess left behind after the barricade.
Local
Get Los Angeles's latest local news on crime, entertainment, weather, schools, COVID, cost of living and more. Here's your go-to source for today's LA news.
“He looked like he wanted to cry and we just wanted to help,” Helana England said.
“It’s just human nature to help people and you just want to make sure that he’s okay,” Kristopher England said.
Maureen is facing charges in connection with assault with a deadly weapon and making criminal threats.
