A report of a man with a knife breaking into an El Cajon car wash Sunday night set off a SWAT standoff that ended with the suspect hiding inside a parked car behind the business before officers took him into custody. Police say a woman also reported that the same suspect robbed her at knifepoint, and he was ultimately booked into San Diego County jail on a robbery charge.
El Cajon Police Department officers received the initial call around 9 p.m. Sunday reporting a man with a knife breaking into a car wash in the 100 block of South First Street, according to Lieutenant Michael Murphy, per Fox 5 San Diego and KUSI News. Officers located the suspect behind the car wash, where he allegedly damaged property before hiding inside a car parked behind the business. Fox 5 and KUSI reported that a woman separately came forward to say the suspect had robbed her at knifepoint.
When officers tried to get the suspect out of the vehicle, he refused their commands to exit, and he appeared to be holding an object that looked like a knife, according to the same report. Officers initially deployed non-lethal tactics. The suspect then began walking toward officers before hiding in a parked car. SWAT was called after he refused to exit and later used non-lethal rounds.
Suspect Taken Into Custody After Refusing Commands
The suspect eventually complied and exited the vehicle, at which point police took him into custody. He was transported to a local hospital for medical evaluation before being booked into San Diego County jail on a robbery charge, the outlet's report states. The specific extent of the property damage at the car wash and the suspect's medical condition following the encounter with SWAT were not detailed in the available reporting.
Under California Penal Code Section 211, robbery is a felony that can bring two, three, or five years in state prison for second-degree robbery, or up to nine years for first-degree robbery, and it counts as a strike under the state's Three Strikes law, according to the Shouse Law Group. Robbery requires taking property from someone's immediate possession against their will through force or fear. The alleged break-in at the car wash is described in the available reporting, but that reporting does not discuss possible commercial burglary allegations, related penalties, or the legal elements of such a charge.
Other Tactical Responses in El Cajon
Sunday's standoff and a May incident are documented El Cajon police responses involving specialized tactical units. In May, officers used a department drone and a Taser to track and apprehend a 39-year-old woman armed with a knife near Interstate 8. In July 2025, an El Cajon-area standoff ended after SWAT and a canine unit entered. The department, founded in 1912 and headquartered at 100 Civic Center Way, maintains its own Crisis Negotiation Team and SWAT unit, per Wikipedia, and has provided drone support in La Mesa.
The car wash break-in also fits into a broader property crime picture for El Cajon. The available reporting cited here does not provide comparative figures for commercial and residential burglaries, countywide property-crime trends, Group A offenses, or El Cajon's property- and violent-crime rates relative to national benchmarks.
