A 78-year-old Mentone man was fatally wounded this afternoon by gunfire directed at him from several San Bernardino County sheriff’s deputies while he was barricaded in his home.
The fatal shooting took place after a man, identified by reliable individuals knowledgeable about the incident as Paul Ronald Selby, had himself used a firearm to shoot at Southern California Edison contract employees who were trimming trees and ground vegetation in the 300 block of King Street in Mentone as part of an effort to reduce the summer fire hazard and had come onto his property, located at 325 King Street.
None of those workers was hit, and all of them retreated and took cover. A 9-1-1 call went out immediately.
Deputies were dispatched to the location from the Yucaipa Sheriff’s Station. The first of those arrived at the scene at 10:49 a.m., followed by other units. It was at that point that Selby retreated into his house where he and his wife, 74-year-old Linda Selby, barricaded themselves.
As the law enforcement presence on King Street mounted, the sheriff’s department dispatched an armored vehicle and a special weapons and tactics team to the area. Two crisis negotiators, one known to utilize an aggressive, high-pressure confrontational strategy and another more accustomed to an empathetic approach toward possible deescalation, were sent to the command post for the control perimeter around the incident.
The armored vehicle, which was stationed roughly 60 feet from the two-story Selby residence, and at least some of the tactical team outfitted in combat gear were visible from home.
A nearly two-hour-long effort to persuade Selby to disarm himself and come out of the residence did not produce the desired results.
The department propelled teargas canisters into the home, and after a brief interlude, Linda Selby exited the home. Deputies learned from her that Selby was alone in the house.
According to the department, at approximately 2 p.m., Selby fired on the deputies, who returned fire. He was struck and killed by a fusillade.
Selby had been a resident at 325 King Street since 1985. San Bernardino County Superior Court records he had no criminal record whatsoever, but had been cited for a handful of traffic infractions over the last quarter century. He was convicted and fined in 2003 for driving a vehicle in which one of the passengers was not wearing a seat belt He was convicted and fined in 2004 for driving without a seat belt. A charge of exceeding the speed limit that was filed against him in 2012 was dismissed in 2013. In 2017, a charge of driving without a seat belt filed against him was dismissed. The court record reflects that he was sued in 2007 for damages resulting from a traffic accident, but that the case was dropped in 2011 before going to trial.
-Mark Gutglueck