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Souza v. City of Antioch4/30/1997
ned, telling her to finish her job and come home.
At the urging of her coworkers, at 4:15 a.m., Jennifer dialed 911. She reported to the dispatcher that Joel had held a gun to Cheri's head, and that he had forced Jennifer into his van in violation of a restraining order. She added that she was not supposed to do anything "or he's going to kill the kids." The dispatcher told Jennifer to return to the house to meet officers of the APD who, she stated, would "assess the situation and do what's best for everybody involved and get the kids safe and take care of him."
Before Jennifer reached the house at around 4:30 a.m., she was met by Antioch Police Corporal Gil Conklin and defendant Officer Michael Schneider, among others. Conklin was in command; Schneider was a trained hostage negotiator. From everything they knew of Joel Souza at that time, both Conklin and Schneider considered him to be severely depressed; Schneider thought he was suicidal. After some investigation, the police discovered that Joel had armed and locked himself with the children in the second-story master bedroom. At about 5:30 a.m., Schneider took up a position at the head of the stairs and began talking with Joel through the closed bedroom door.
Schneider introduced himself and told Joel he was there to assure the safety of everyone present. Joel replied that the police should not attempt to enter the bedroom if they did not want anyone to get hurt. Schneider promised that the police would not force entry into the room. Roughly 20 minutes later, at Schneider's request, Conklin had the bedroom telephone disconnected.
Soon afterwards, Schneider heard what sounded like a gun being opened and closed quickly inside the bedroom. After conferring with Jennifer, and checking the garage, where she said her husband normally stored a number of hunting weapons, Conklin informed Schneider that Joel probably had five different guns with him in the bedroom.
Conklin summoned a SWAT team to the house, and Schneider began talking with Nicholas through the door. Nicholas agreed to help his father and to reassure his sister. Shortly after 6:34 a.m., Joel told Schneider, "I hope you guys don't do anything." Schneider again promised him the police would do nothing that would risk anyone's safety, and Joel replied: "That's good; I've got nine rapid shots ready to go so please, please cooperate." Some minutes later, he asked Schneider to "tell Jennifer thanks for putting all the rifles back in my closet." Once again, Schneider assured him the police would not enter the room, and Joel responded, "That's good because I have about 300 rounds of ammunition."
Before 7 a.m., Joel began calling for Jennifer on the house intercom. Minutes after Schneider told him Jennifer was not in the house, Nicholas slipped a note under the door. He told Schneider it was for Jennifer. Schneider said he could not retrieve the note because he had promised Joel he would not approach the door. He asked how many guns they had, and Joel answered, "way too many!" At this, Schneider proposed that they work a trade: he would deliver one note to Jennifer for every gun lowered by a rope out the bedroom window.
Schneider conferred with Jennifer, and had the final say, over the content of her reply to each note, and in this way, by 8 a.m., he had recovered four long rifles from inside the room. At Joel's request, he then arranged a conversation with Jennifer through the door. When this proved unproductive, Schneider told Joel that he would halt the conversation unless he sent Cheri out. Joel asked for time to make up his mind. When Schneider escorted Jennifer out of the house, she suggested he involve Joel's mother, Pa
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