On Sunday, January 26, 2020, deputies with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office were patrolling the area of Newscott Lane in Ono looking for a wanted subject, Jake Houser.
Houser had two felony arrest warrants for robbery. One warrant was for robbing the Midway Market at gunpoint on December 8, 2019 at 9:00 in the morning. The second warrant was regarding Houser threatening his mother on January 11, 2020; then assaulting her and taking her car by means of force and fear constituting robbery. Houser was considered armed and dangerous based on his crimes as well as information received by the Sheriff’s Office that Houser was claiming he wouldn’t be taken into custody without a fight.
Deputies located Houser at approximately 4:30 PM near an unoccupied cabin at the end of Newscott Lane. Houser ran from the deputies into the cabin and immediately began barricading the front door. Additional deputies responded to the cabin and began setting up a perimeter around the location. While deputies were moving around the cabin a single gunshot was heard from inside the cabin. The bullet exited through a wall and struck the ground between two patrol cars that deputies were standing behind as cover.
Houser was talking over the phone with a deputy and claiming he was heavily armed, the house was a stronghold and he had a grenade. The Sheriff’s Office SWAT team, Hostage Negotiating Team (HNT) and Bomb Squad were all notified.
The SWAT team responded to the cabin and HNT kept communicating with Houser trying to convince him to come out peacefully. The SWAT team introduced chemical agents into the house but Houser still refused to come out. At one point Houser agreed to throw out one of his weapons and threw out a 30-30 caliber rifle. Negotiations continued for several hours and additional chemical agents were introduced into the house. At this point Houser agreed to surrender and walked out of the cabin. Houser was taken into custody without further incident. The SWAT team did a sweep of the cabin after Houser was arrested and found a loaded AK47 rifle, the inside of the house was heavily barricaded and no explosives were found.
Houser was arrested for his warrants with additional charges to be filed once the investigations are completed.
