SAN MARCOS–An armed mentally-challenged man was arrested after he shot his mother’s pet turtle, and barricaded himself inside his mobile home, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said Saturday.
Deputies say at about 10:26 a.m., Kerry McCuin called 911 and reported her 26 year old son, David Nelson, who also goes by the name,”Alex,” used a black handgun and shot and killed her pet turtle. McCuin said he was high on illegal drugs. Nelson told his mother he was going to kill her and wanted to commit “suicide by cop.” Additionally, he said he was going to become famous for “killing people.”
Deputies attempted to contact Nelson at his residence, but he barricaded himself inside his mobile home. Several
attempts were made to establish communication with Nelson, but he failed to respond.
Sheriff’s Special Enforcement Detail (SED) and the Crisis Negotiation Team (CNT) were called to assist in the standoff.
The CNT members attempted to establish a rapport with Nelson, but his only response was, “you are
going to have to shoot me.” Since Nelson was extremely uncooperative and his mother stated he was armed
with a handgun, the SED units assisted with taking Nelson into custody.
SED utilized chemical agents to flush Nelson out of the residence and he surrendered and was taken into custody without incident.