Standoff with Walnut Creek murder suspect ends in Martinez

MARTINEZ, Calif. (KTVU) - After 19 hours, the standoff with the man suspected in the murder of a woman on a Walnut Creek street has ended peacefully Friday afternoon in Martinez. 

A KTVU crew watched as the man came out of his vehicle with his hands up. That was after law enforcement blew out his back window. The man had surrendered a gun earlier, before coming out of the vehicle. 

Walnut Creek police identified the suspect as Gregory Prokopowicz, 38, of Walnut Creek and Martinez. Police said the man was dating the woman, who has now been identified by police as Roselyn Policarpio, 47, of Martinez.

The manhunt for the suspect started in Walnut Creek Friday after the woman was shot and killed on the 1900 block of First Avenue in Walnut Creek, just a half a block away from the Lindsay Wildlife Experience Center.

After allegedly shooting her multiple times, Prokopowicz fled in a Chevrolet sedan, abandoning the car about a half-mile away on Lynvale Lane, police said.

Officers using dogs and a California Highway Patrol helicopter found the car about an hour later. The dogs were then able to track the suspect to a home on nearby San Luis Road.

By then the man had left the area, but at about 7 p.m. Walnut Creek officers spotted him in Martinez riding in the passenger seat of a silver Mercedes, which they pulled over near the intersection of Howe Road and Arnold Drive, police said.

The Mercedes driver got out of the car and was detained, interviewed by officers and later released.

The suspect did not get out of the car. He put a gun to his head and said he was going to "harm himself," police said.

At one point during the night, the man accidentally fired a single shot from a handgun through car's windshield, but no one was struck by the bullet.

SWAT teams were in a standoff with the man until he got out of the car with his hands up at a little after 2 p.m. today.

The man had exited the car about an hour before he ultimately surrendered and at some point police fired less-than-lethal sponge rounds at him, according to Cashion.

Cashion did not say if the suspect was struck by the rounds or if he was injured during his arrest.

KTVU reporter Henry Lee and Bay Cities News contributed to this report.