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The man involved in a 19-hour standoff after he allegedly fatally shot a woman he was dating was arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of homicide, Walnut Creek police said.
Gregory Prokopowicz, 38, was set to be taken to the Martinez Detention Facility after being treated for a minor injury to his ribs from the less-than-lethal sponge round, according to police.
No one else was injured during the standoff, according to police.
Prokopowicz, 38, is accused of killing Roselyn Policarpio, 47, around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday in the 1900 block of First Avenue in Walnut Creek, near Larkey Park and Lindsay Wildlife Experience, police said.
After the shooting, Prokopowicz fled in a Chevrolet sedan, which he abandoned about a half-mile away on Lynvale Lane. Police K-9s tracked to him to a home, but by then he had left, according to police.
Around 7 p.m., Walnut Creek officers spotted Prokopowicz in Martinez riding in the passenger seat of a silver Mercedes and pulled the car over.
The Mercedes driver got out of the car and was detained, interviewed by officers and released.
Prokopowicz did not get out of the car. He put a gun to his head and said he was going to “harm himself,” police said.
At one point during the night, Prokopowicz accidentally fired a single shot from a handgun through the car’s windshield, but no one was struck by the bullet, according to police.
The Contra Costa County SWAT Team was in a standoff with Prokopowicz through the night and into the morning. Around 11:30 a.m. Friday, Central County SWAT took over, police said.
Negotiators spoke with Prokopowicz for about an hour and a half when he left the car to get a water bottle. SWAT operators told him to keep his hands up and surrender, but he grabbed the water bottle and turned to run back to the car, according to police.
The SWAT team fired a less-than-lethal sponge round at him, hitting him the right ribcage, police said. Prokopowicz got back in the vehicle and closed the door.
After about an hour and a half, negotiators convinced Prokopowicz to throw his firearm out the window and then a knife, however, he armed himself with another knife and refused to give it up or come out.
SWAT deployed three rounds of tear gas into the car and within seconds Prokopowicz got out of the vehicle and surrendered around 2:11 p.m. Friday, according to police.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Walnut Creek Police Department at (925) 935-6400 or Detective Greg Leonard at (925) 256-3523.
I — Janis Mara, Bay City News
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I think the police were way too patient with this thug…. All the man-hours and thousands of dollars spent in the 20-hour waiting game. If he did not give up after the first hour, they should have shot him…., Save Society a lot of money and future trouble. American society has gotten crazy in that it has all this compassion for criminals, but not for the victim or for all the hard-working, good citizens out there.
Ditto Greg!
I’m curious to know about the water bottle reference. Did he go into the gas station and grab a bottle or was it provided by the police? God forbid the suspect suffer from dehydration. A waste of everyone time.
I’m sorry, if he didn’t do it, why in the hell didn’t he just get out of the car?
Of course with all the coverage on TV his trial will have to be moved somewhere else. Got to give a guilty guy a chance to get away with murder.
I agree with the other two comments. To put it simply….give him a bottle of water, pull him out of the car by his “toes” and tell him to “shape up or ship out”. This is not a “hide and seek” game. We are treating criminals like they are children…enough all ready!!!