GPD: Man arrested after threatening BankPacific employee, refusing police orders (2024)

A 38-year-old man was arrested after he threatened to kill a BankPacific employee and then refused police orders to get out of his vehicle, the Guam Police Department announced in a release.

Joseph David Calvo Atalig, of Talo’fo’fo’, was arrested after nearly an hour of failed negotiations for him to surrender, GPD said.

The situation was widely shared on social media Monday morning with videos showing officers pointing guns toward a vehicle near Carabao Brewing in Hagåtña. Another video showed officers breaking the car windows to get inside the vehicle.

A woman who works at BankPacific in Hagåtña reported to police at about 8:30 a.m. Monday that she received death threats from a man known to her, alleging that he would come into the bank and do harm, GPD said.

She also reported to police that she saw him inside his car parked outside the bank. Central Precinct patrol officers responded to the bank where they met with the woman and searched the surrounding areas but didn’t find him, the release stated.

About two hours later, police received a second call from the bank, this time from a co-worker of the woman, who reported that Atalig was parked outside the bank, GPD said.

Bank officials immediately locked the bank down for the safety of the public and bank employee.

Central Precinct patrol officers responded again and this time spotted Atalig’s vehicle on Aspinall Avenue in Hagåtña and pulled the car over near Carabao Brewing.

Patrol officers approached the vehicle, but Atalig refused to comply with the police officers’ instructions and threatened them, GPD said.

“Due the severity of this threat, police closed down the surrounding streets and in coordination with the island’s media issued a public safety broadcast warning the public of the situation and to stay out of the area,” GPD said.

Atalig continued to defy police orders to surrender and demanded they kill him; a commonly known plea from suspects known as “suicide by cop.” Soon after, units from the Special Operations Command arrived on scene and took command of the incident. They deployed de-escalation techniques but Atalig refused to surrender and continued his pleas to be killed by the police, the release stated.

After nearly an hour of failed negotiations, SWAT broke the window of the vehicle and extracted Atalig safely. He suffered minor injuries, GPD said.

He was arrested on suspicion of terrorizing, terroristic conduct, stalking, family violence, resisting arrest and possession of a Schedule II controlled substance.

He was booked and confined and his case was forwarded to the attorney general’s office for prosecution.

BankPacific in a social media post thanked “the brave men and women of the Guam Police Department for their heroic actions while preventing what could have been an unfortunate violent event in Hagåtña this morning.”