After an all-night standoff with police, an Española man apparently killed himself early Thursday rather than return to jail on drug charges.

Carl E. Peterson, 48, died after shooting himself in the head at 6:45 a.m. as a small armored vehicle smashed through a wall of his mobile home at 2118 N.M. 291, also known as El Llano Road, police said.

The incident began about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday as agents from the U.S. Marshal's Office and the New Mexico Probation & Parole Division conducting a sweep of alleged parole violators made their last stop of the day in the Española area.

State police spokesman Lt. Eric Garcia said the agents located Charles Newman, wanted on an arrest warrant out of Ohio, at a mobile home on El Llano Road across from a small airport owned by Ohkay Owingeh Pueblo. But as they served that warrant, Garcia said, they encountered another man who fled on foot to the mobile home next door.

The agents identified the man who fled as Peterson, who was wanted on an Española-area warrant for felony drug possession and other charges, in violation of his probation on previous drug charges. Peterson took a woman from Newman's residence into his own home, where there was a second woman.

When he refused to surrender, tactical teams from the state police, the Albuquerque and Santa Fe police departments were called in, as well as a state police negotiator and officers from Española and Rio Arriba County. The local radio station KDCE warned residents to stay away as police surrounded the area.

Garcia said Peterson held one of the two women from behind and pointed the pistol at her in a threatening manner. Around 6 p.m., he released both women — who both were the subject of outstanding arrest warrants — and told the negotiator he would not return to jail. After 11 p.m., he fired three shots from the residence toward the officers, and eight to 10 more through the night, but negotiations continued, Garcia said.

About 5 a.m. Thursday, tactical units fired tear gas into the residence, waited until the gas cleared, then entered with a police dog. Garcia said Peterson fired at the dog, but the bullet was deflected off the animal's electronic "shock" collar and did not injure the dog. The officers retreated to a "cover and concealment position," he said, while a BearCat, an armored vehicle described by the police spokesman as a small tank, began punching holes into the mobile home to allow entry.

"While they were punching holes in the side of the residence, they heard ... a single gunshot," he said. "While they were approaching (the residence) a second time, they observed ... Peterson slumped over with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head."

After police make sure no one else was inside, paramedics treated Peterson, then took him to Española Valley Hospital where he died later of his injuries. No one else was injured.

State court records indicate Peterson has been charged with drug offenses more than a dozen times in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties, beginning in 1992, with most charges between 2004 and 2006, and none since that.

Contact Tom Sharpe at 986-3080 or tsharpe@sfnewmexican.com.