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James George Lunsford, 25, staged a phony emergency to lure Fresno police to his townhouse on October 19, 2006, shot and wounded two responding officers, and killed himself hours later as a SWAT team closed in, according to the Fresno Police Department.

Lunsford called 911 at 3:28 a.m. and told a dispatcher that a man he identified as his boyfriend was suicidal and high on cocaine and heroin, police Lt. Randy Dobbins said. He asked officers to respond to his townhouse in the San Jose Villa complex on West San Jose Avenue, just north of Shaw and Brawley avenues.

Officers Daniel Messick, 27, and Trevor Shipman, 22, arrived to find Lunsford standing alone on his second-floor balcony. He told them that he and the other man were unarmed, dropped them a set of keys and invited them upstairs. As they moved to the door, police said, Lunsford leaned over the railing and fired down at them, firing more than 20 rounds. Investigators said he was wearing body armor.

Shipman was hit several times, including in the back, an arm and a thigh, and was taken into surgery. Messick was struck once in the leg and was treated and released. Both officers reached cover and were pulled to safety. Both later recovered and returned to patrol duty.

Shortly before 4 a.m., Lunsford called 911 a second time and told dispatchers he had hurt a police officer. The standoff lasted about seven hours and involved negotiators, a robot, flash-bang devices and tear gas. Officers found Lunsford dead in an upstairs bathroom closet with self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head.

Detectives concluded the emergency had been fabricated. Lunsford's girlfriend told investigators that he was not gay, and police said the suicidal boyfriend he described did not exist. Chief Jerry Dyer said the shooting may have been Lunsford's second attempt to lure officers into an ambush: Lunsford had called police on October 13 to report something suspicious and was waiting on his balcony when officers arrived, though nothing happened that night.