Versions conflict in bloody assault that prompted SWAT standoff

Police records reveal that a May 16 standoff in the Rancho El Dorado neighborhood between a 34-year-old man and a sheriff’s office SWAT team might have been prompted by a bloody assault. However, the girlfriend of the man told police and witnesses differing accounts of what occurred.

The man, Ryan C. Schwab, was arrested that evening on suspicion of aggravated assault and domestic violence. His girlfriend, 30-year-old Lea Cuevas of Maricopa, was treated for multiple injuries, including a 3- to 4-inch laceration to her neck – a cut possibly caused by a screwdriver attachment on a multi-tool.

Maricopa police reports obtained by InMaricopa.com through a public records request reveal the standoff at a residence in the 43000 block of Courtney Drive began after a neighbor called police and said Schwab had cut his girlfriend’s neck.

Before police were called to the residence around 5:20 p.m., Cuevas ran from the home across the street to a neighbor’s house, records state. The neighbor told police she washed the cut on her neck inside the house before grabbing a screwdriver and “saying she was going to kill Ryan.”

The neighbor, described as a “friend” in the report, calmed her down and called police.

Authorities knocked on the door and rang the doorbell of the house where Schwab was located. After several attempts to make contact, police determined Schwab had barricaded himself inside the home.

During the standoff, Cuevas was taken by Southwest Ambulance to Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center in Scottsdale. A medic in the ambulance later told police the woman said her boyfriend tried to kill her and she had been assaulted continuously since the previous evening. The medic told authorities the woman said she had been punched in the stomach and her head had been rammed into a fireplace.

Cuevas also told the medic she had consumed “a significant amount of alcohol,” a report states. When she was told the ambulance was being rerouted from a Chandler hospital to a hospital in Scottsdale, she “became combative and medics restrained her chemically and in soft restraints.”

In addition to the laceration on the right side of the woman’s neck, a police report states she had small contusions and lacerations on her right thigh, a contusion on her left ankle and two contusions on her chest.

When police at the hospital asked Cuevas what had happened, she said Schwab was “a nice guy” and “He would never hurt me.” She also told police her boyfriend was on probation and she didn’t want him “to get into trouble.”

When authorities questioned Cuevas about her injuries, she said the neck wound was self-inflicted as well as the lacerations on her thigh. She told police the bruises on her chest were from rough sexual activity.