Multiple charges filed in Carson City standoff

Christopher Conti, 39, faces multiple charges including assault with a deadly weapon after deputies responded to his grandmother’s home on Morgan Mill Road on Tuesday.

He was arrested after an hour-long incident that ended when he opened the front door with a revolver pressed against his head and was subdued with non-lethal beanbags fired by SWAT team members.

Carson City Sheriff Ken Furlong praised his team’s handling of the situation, including ending it without bloodshed.

“This could have been so much worse,” he said. “In this case, everybody is going to be fine.”

The woman, 73, called dispatch shortly after 8 a.m. to report that Conti was threatening to hurt himself with a knife. She managed to take the knife away but then Conti armed himself with a pistol and she said she was worried he would shoot himself. At that point, dispatch reported hearing gunshots over the phone.

She locked herself in a bedroom and continued talking to dispatchers.

Deputies who responded to the residence reported hearing shots from inside. Shortly after, SWAT arrived at the scene and prepared to enter the residence. As they did so, she told dispatch Conti was attempting to enter the bedroom.

Deputies called out to Conti to surrender and exit the residence with his hands up.

As SWAT was preparing to enter from the rear of the house, Conti exited the front door, pistol against his head and demanded deputies shoot him. They did but with beanbag rounds instead of bullets after which SWAT team members subdued him.

The arrest report says he displayed “drastic mood swings” while being transported to Carson Tahoe Hospital, thrashing around in the ambulance. At the hospital he calmed down after being medicated. After obtaining a warrant for a blood draw, the arrest report states that his blood alcohol level was 0.248 — roughly three times legally intoxicated.

Conti was released from the hospital and transported to the jail just after 4 p.m.

Investigators say Conti fired some 10 rounds from the .45-caliber revolver, some inside the residence and others from the backyard that hit a neighbor’s shed. The woman victim said she had to lie on the floor of her locked bedroom to avoid being hit by the bullets.

Conti’s grandmother was unharmed.

Conti was charged with drawing a deadly weapon in a threatening manner, discharging a firearm within city limits, possession of a firearm while intoxicated, domestic battery and assault with a deadly weapon.

Total bail was set at $27,000.