Burson Man Arrested After SWAT Team Called
Burson, CA – The man barricaded himself and his two-year-old daughter inside his girl friend’s home in Burson following an argument, according to Calaveras County Sheriff’s officials
Deputies were called to the scene after a report of a man with a gun threatening to kill a family member at their home on the 5000 block of Southworth Road around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The female caller identified the man as her boyfriend, 47-year-old Troy Casteel of Burson. She stated that Casteel had pointed a gun at her and said he would kill her. She was able to escape out of the house with another one of their children, a four-year-old, according to Sheriff Rick DiBasilio, but he did not know the sex of the child. The mother was not able to grab the couple’s daughter as she fled the home .
After repeated attempts by sheriff’s deputies to get Casteel to come out of the house, the Calaveras Sheriff’s SWAT team and the Hostage Negotiations Team were called to the scene. A loudspeaker was used to talk to Casteel and after a couple of hours he walked out of the house. He was taken into custody without incident. Sheriff DiBasilio states, “He [Casteel] said that he was actually sleeping and did not hear us yelling at for him for two and a half hours and he didn’t have the weapon on him.”
The little girl was unharmed and returned to family members. Casteel faces felony charges of assault with a deadly weapon, criminal threats, cruelty to a child, and misdemeanor battery. Sheriff DiBasilio reports this is not the first time deputies have been called to the home. He adds, “There has been at least two calls to the home in the past for verbal arguments but they never escalated to this point.”