Man Arrested After 8-Hour Standoff Inside General Store Near Yosemite Gate

TUOLUMNE COUNTY (CBS13) — A Washington state man is under arrest after an eight-hour standoff inside a general store near the Yosemite National Park gate in Tuolumne County over the weekend.

The sheriff's office says, just after 11 a.m. Sunday, deputies got a report about a man armed with a knife who was inside the Yosemite Lakes County Store. Authorities say the man came into the store irate and refused to leave.

All customers and employees managed to get out of the store safely before deputies got to the scene.

Law enforcement officers - including representatives from the Tuolumne County Sheriff's Office, the US Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife, Yosemite National Park Law Enforcement and CHP - all tried to contact the man, but couldn't.

A standoff then followed, with the sheriff's office Crisis Response Unit (consisting of a SWAT team and crisis negotiators) responding to try and talk with the suspect.

After about eight hours, the SWAT team went into the store and took the suspect - now identified as 39-year-old Oroville, Wash. resident Robert Loschiavo - into custody without incident.

Loschiavo is now facing charges of robbery and resisting arrest.