A U.S. Border Patrol agent suspected of child sex crimes is in police custody after he barricaded himself inside a Southern Arizona church with a gun as investigators closed in, authorities said.
Special agent Dana Thornhill, 49, was arrested Thursday April 9 after a four-hour standoff near Huachuca City, a small town about 60 miles southeast of Tucson.
He is charged with two counts each of sexual assault and sexual conduct with a minor and is being held without bond, the Sierra Vista Police Department said a news release Friday.
Thornhill came to attention of authorities during a joint investigation between SVPD and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security into "ongoing sexual abuse of multiple children," the news release said.
Thornhill was under police surveillance in Sierra Vista, where he lives, when he suddenly left town and holed up in the church, it said. Detectives believed he'd been tipped off about his impending arrest and was carrying a semiautomatic pistol.
Negotiators eventually talked the suspect into giving up his gun and he was arrested without further incident outside the church, it said.
