Joshua Christianson was supposed to return to Marine training Wednesday morning.
Instead, the 18-year-old sat on the pavement outside his Loveland house and held a gun to his head.
After seven hours of talking with police, and after police shot him with a nonlethal rubber round, he was taken to McKee Medical Center in Loveland, bruised but virtually unharmed.
“Nobody got hurt,” Sgt. Chuck Higney said. “That’s winning the Super Bowl. That’s winning the World Series.”
Christianson was taken to the hospital and then to the Larimer County Detention Center in Fort Collins. He faces three misdemeanor charges.
In the hours before, in a cul-de-sac near Wilson Avenue and West 35th Street, Christianson threatened to kill himself. He did not threaten police or anyone else, just himself.
“He sat down, crossed his legs and put the muzzle right on his forehead,” said resident John Helden, who had a clear view from his house nearby. Christianson stayed that way for hours, the neighbor said.
Helden’s was one of the 1,030 households warned by telephone to stay inside.
Only the seven homes on Granby Court, including Christianson’s, were evacuated through their back doors.
So, his mom and sister, at home when the incident started, were not there hours later when tactical officers made their synchronized move about noon.
Five loud booms pierced the air, as police exploded small devices to distract Christianson.
At the same moment, two Fort Collins officers fired large rubber rounds that hit Christianson in the back and stunned and disabled him.
Separated from his rifle, Christianson complied with police without further struggle.
“We’re a lifesaving organization, and that’s what we did today,” said Sgt. Phil Metzler, one of the officers involved.
“We saved a 19-year-old young man who has a lot of life left and probably has a short-term problem.
“Nothing is ever textbook, but we did the best we could.”
Relief mixed with sweat on the tactical officers’ faces after their hours in the sun paid off.
As the tension lifted with Christianson safe, detectives began to unravel what led the young man to threaten to shoot himself.
Some friends and neighbors said Christianson — “Ace” to his close friends — did not want to return to the Marines.
Christianson was not scheduled to go to Iraq, but his older brother had been there, said former Marine and neighbor Steve Harstad.
“He probably got some gruesome stories about what’s going on and got scared,” Harstad said. “He is a real good kid and was never a troublemaker.
“He was like a trapped animal. He didn’t know where to turn, where to go.”
However, Don Jesik, father of one of Christianson’s closest friends, said he thinks there are other causes for the young man’s actions. He didn’t link the standoff directly to the military.
“Ace has been struggling for a while,” Don Jesik said.
“He was having a tough time before he went into the Marines.”
The hours leading up to the standoff, Christianson spent with two of his closest friends, Buster Jesik, 20, and Chris Smith, 19.
The trio watched the fireworks Tuesday night at North Lake Park, and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, Smith said.
“He wasn’t on edge at all,” he said.
But at 2 a.m., Christianson called Buster Jesik and Smith. Smith had his phone on silent; Jesik answered his.
“He said ‘I think I’m going to shoot myself in the face,’” Jesik said.
Jesik said he found Christianson outside with his brother’s assault rifle, roughly where he was when police arrived.
“I talked with him until the cops showed up,” Jesik said.
That was shortly after 5:09 a.m. — the time Christianson’s mother called for help.
SWAT teams from Loveland and Fort Collins and members of the Larimer County bomb squad answered that summons.
Christianson had been in ROTC and always was polite and friendly, neighbors said.
“He always smiled and said hello,” said Barbara Harstad.
Wednesday was no exception.
Next-door-neighbor Gale Stiner went outside about 6 a.m. to retrieve his newspaper and saw Christianson with his gun.
“He said, ‘How are you doing?’” Stiner said. “I said, ‘Fine.’ He was very calm. He wasn’t threatening in any way.”
Stiner retreated to his house at the order of police.
Aiming to keep the neighborhood safe, officers evacuated homes, spoke with Christianson and waited in strategic locations in homes and yards.
At one point, they traded Christianson three cigarettes for removing the magazine from his rifle, said Lt. Rick Arnold. The Marine complied then later returned the magazine to the weapon — a CAR-15, which is the civilian version of an M-16.
But he never fired the weapon.
Jesik, who has known Christianson for about 15 years and been friends with him for three, said he didn’t feel threatened.
“We talked for a few hours. By the end he was completely cool,” he said.
Jesik said Christianson would never try to hurt anyone. Smith said his friend didn’t do well in his last semester at Loveland High School; he had to take a summer class to graduate in 2005. After that, he said Christianson didn’t know what to do.
That’s when a military recruiter called, Jesik said.
“He’s not a violent person,” Jesik said. “He’s definitely very depressed and unhappy and very pent-up.”
Police used a nonlethal weapon called a Sage gun to stun an 18-year-old, ending a seven-hour standoff Wednesday.The gun, developed by Sage International, can accurately propel a rubber round — a hard device that looks like the end of a police baton — up to 75 yards. It is one of several tools that police use to avoid firing bullets at a suspect.