A Bay Area murder suspect who shot himself during an hours-long standoff with Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s deputies and a SWAT team has died.
Patrol officers spotted Gale Lee Boyd last Friday morning at a Highway 101 truck stop at Betteravia Road in Santa Maria. The 46 year old Las Vegas man refused to surrender. The area was evacuated, a SWAT team called, and crisis negotiators called in to help. But, more than four hours after it started, Boyd shot himself in the head.
Authorities wouldn’t comment on his condition at first, but now say he died a day later. An autopsy is still pending. Boyd was wanted for the June 9th murder of a man in Oakland.